Signs - Movie Rewrite
by Awatere11
Summary: Ianto and Jack are trying to coexist. Each man has lost a sibling, the children left to them in the will and now this huge farm that is miles from Wales is Ianto's new home. He has a lot to be pissed off about, not least of all the shenanigans happening in the corn field at night. At least Jack seems a nice bloke and they might be OK...wait ... something is moving in the shadows.
1. Chapter 1

1

Let us begin as the voyeurs we are.

Morning.

We are looking out a second story window of a house. The backyard is large and green with a wooden jungle gym, worn from use. A single tree throws shade onto a barbecue and a picnic table.

The backyard is lined by crops. Corn. Golden and brown. Six feet high.

Everything is perfect. Like a postcard. And then we hear a child scream.

It's far away, drifting on the wind.

Ianto Jones wakes up from his sleep. He thought he heard something. He listens.

He hears the fridge downstairs, a creaking swing in the yard…birds

Ianto climbs out of bed. He moves in his pyjama pants and Welsh Rugby shirt towards the bedroom door.

Ianto stands in the hall landing where three bedroom doors meet. He moves to the door that has children's drawings taped to it. He puts his ear close. Listens. Beat.

He relaxes. Ianto leans down and picks up two balled up sweat socks and a child's sweater from the hallway floor. He puts it in the hallway hamper before heading back into his bedroom.

A bathroom door is open.

Ianto is brushing his teeth as he tries to remember what he had planned for the day, it seems to have already flitted away with the startled wakening **.**

Outside the bathroom on the bedroom wall is the sun faded outline of where a large catholic cross used to hang. It's ghostly stained forever on the blank wall.

A child screams in the distance.

The water from the sink stops. Ianto steps into the doorway. Toothbrush and foam in his mouth. He becomes very still.

The bedroom door bursts open next to the bathroom. Ianto steps into his children's room. There are children's books everywhere. Overflowing off shelves. Piled in corners.

Ianto's eyes move to the small messy beds. They're both empty.

The voices of the children waft up around the garage and the flat above said garage. Jack Harkness throws the bed sheets off himself as he swings onto his feet in one quick motion. He is hyper-awake.

Jack is in his late thirties. He is well build. His muscles are tense as he stands in his red bikini briefs and looks around bewildered.

Ianto bangs open the back screen door and runs into the backyard. He spins as he looks around.

Jack, now with a T-shirt and jeans, rumbles down the side stairs adjacent to the garage building.

Jack and Ianto make eye contact as they approach each other across the yard.

"Where are they?" Jack demands of his brother-in-law.

Ianto looks around - panic growing in his eyes.

"Unccccle!" a faint cry is heard. Ianto and Jack in unison turn in the direction of the yelling. They look away from the house, across the yard and into the high wall of crops.

The tall stalks of corn smack Ianto and Jack's faces as they run through the crops.

A little girl appears in the crops thirty feet ahead of them like an apparition. She is in her nightgown. She is four.

They reach her fast. She stands unaware of them in a daze.

Her hair is messed from sleep.

"Toshiko where's Owen?"

Toshiko stands peacefully lost in her thoughts.

"Tosh?" Toshiko finally looks at her Uncle.

She smiles softly.

"Are you in my dreams too?" she asks dreamily.

"This isn't a…"Ianto begins.

"Uncle!"

Ianto looks in the direction of the boy's voice. He's close. Ianto picks up Toshiko and rushes through the crops.

He finds Owen standing with his hands in the pockets of his pyjama bottoms. In the distance dogs are barking.

"Owen what's happening?" Ianto demands of his child as he puts Toshiko on the ground and moves right in front of Owen. The ten-year old boy looks deep in thought.

Ianto takes hold of Owen's chin and turns his face so he's looking straight at him.

"Are... you... hurt?"

Beat.

Owen's eyes reveal he's come to some answer. "I think God did it."

The bloody dogs are still barking.

"Did what Owen?" Ianto asked with confusion.

Owen takes hold of his Uncle's unshaven chin and turns his face. Ianto is forced to look to his right.

Ianto sees something.

Ianto Jones slowly rises to his feet. He starts moving forward towards something. He walks through a thin layer of crops and emerges in a clearing.

Two German Shepherds are running back and forth.

They are clearly agitated.

Ianto looks around at the thousands of corn stalks lying flat on the ground. They lay in a gigantic circle, a hundred feet wide. Ianto looks around in a daze as he walks out into the centre. Jack, Toshiko and Owen follow him.

The dogs keep running and barking as the Harkness-Jones family look around, standing in a gigantic crop circle.

The eerie design, five hundred feet wide, sitting in the middle of an untouched corn field.

.

.

.

Ianto holds his hand over the BBQ to see if it's at the right temperature. The other hand holds a cordless phone to his ear.

"Lee actually the reason I'm calling is about Eugene." Ianto says as he stokes the coals with a long BBQ fork. "Was he at home last night with you or was he out and about with the Huntington brothers?"

Ianto moves around from behind the barbecue and heads towards the house.

"Well, there was a little mischief done to our crops last night." Ianto says then pauses, "I know he's a fine boy... No one's saying otherwise."

Ianto steps through the back screen door into his kitchen **.** Ianto holds the phone a little closer and talks in a soft voice, "Listen Lee, I don't even mind if it was him. You could just talk to him and that would be enough for me... See it was kind of strange finding the crops like that. The kids were... confused by it. It would take the strangeness away if we knew it was Eugene and the Huntington brothers just messing around..".

"The movies..." Ianto grimaces at the news he didn't really want to hear, " Are you sure? Okay, then... Thank you for your patience Lee."

Ianto turns off the phone. He turns to put it on the counter and realizes his children are seated on the kitchen floor with one of their two German Shepherds. There is a large puddle on the kitchen tiles.

"Myfanwy peed." Owen says calmly "I think she's sick."

Ianto looks at the majestic dog. It's shivering.

"Take her outside. I'll call the Doctor." Ianto suggests and Owen and Toshiko lead their dog out with worried expressions on their faces.

Ianto grabs a handful of paper towels and places it on the puddle of urine. The doorbell rings with Ianto still on his knees on the kitchen floor. He leans back so he can see down the hall.

A slight police officer stands on the other side of the screen door.

"That was quick Andy." Ianto huffs as he lets his friend in "I only called you boys about two hours ago."

Officer Andy Davidson nods that he knows.

Mrs. Noble twisted her ankle as she put it, "diving for her life" when a bunch of school kids rode down the sidewalk on skateboards. She went down to the Williams store this morning and started spitting on the new skateboards. Spitting! By the time I got there, Mrs. Noble had sprayed the whole damn place... She must have had a cold or something. It was enough to turn a grown man's stomach."

Ianto stares at Officer Davidson.

"So what happened to your crops?" Andy asks calmly.

.

.

.

Toshiko walks from the house with a large glass of water. She moves to Myfanwy, who sits in the shade by the picnic table.

Owen pokes the BBQ fork into two meat patties on the grill. He places two pieces of cheese on the hamburgers, before walking over to Myfanwy.

The two children sit down in the grass with the dog.

Toshiko is about to pour the glass of water into the dog bowl.

She stops.

Takes a tiny sip of the water first.

She holds the glass out to Owen. "I think it's contaminated."

"You don't even know what that word means." Owen rolls his eyes as he samples the water. "It's not contaminated. It's just tap water. Pour it in her bowl."

"It tastes funny." She argues.

"She licks her butt every day. She's not going to mind."

Toshiko shrugs and pours it into the bowl.

Myfanwy just sits staring at them.

She is not shivering. She doesn't drink. She is unnaturally still.

Toshiko pushes the bowl closer.

Myfanwy moves quickly, Toshiko pulling her hand back and the jaws snap shut in the space where her hand used to be.

The children turn white.

"Myfanwy?" Owen asks with annoyance.

MYFANWY BEGINS TO GROWL.

Toshiko stands up.

"Toshiko don't run." Owen says softly as Myfanwy crouches down. "What's wrong girl?"

The dog growls, a deep menacing warning and Owen frowns, "Stop it Myfanwy!"

The German shepherd trembles. Her body tightens. She's about to lunge.

"Tosh" Owen says softly, "run."


	2. Chapter 2

2

Officer Andy Davidson stands facing Ianto fifty feet away. They are on opposite ends of the crop circle. The crops all around them sway as the wind blows.

Andy yells over the wind. "It's the strangest thing Father."

"Don't call me Father."

"What's that?" Andy yells.

"Don't call me Father. It's just Ianto now."

"Sorry."Andy sighs as he forgot again. They stand in awkward silence fifty feet away from each other.

"You said something was strange" Ianto says, turning to Andy "What's strange?"

Andy points "The footprints."

"What about them?" Ianto asks with surprise.

"There are none." Andy points out, his knee touches the ground. He points to a single stalk of corn laying flat on its side. "Look at where it's bent over."

Ianto stands next to him and leans in. The joint where the stalk bends from the ground is a perfect "L".

"It's not broken." Ianto reaches out to stroke the corner of the bend.

"What kind of machine can bend a stalk of corn over without cracking it?" Ianto looks around at the hundreds of thousands of corn stalks bent over each other in a perfect wave. "Can't be by hand... It's too perfect."

"Doesn't sound much like Eugene and the Huntington brothers" Andy snorts with mirth "They can't take a piss without wetting the front of their pants."

Ianto, nods in agreement.

Andy stands up. "Second thing this week I can't explain."

"What was the first thing?" Ianto wonders with interest.

"Some animals around the county exhibiting uncharacteristic behaviour" Andy rises and slaps his trousers "Sometimes violent behaviour. Theo Hendrix had two of his fingers bit off by his cow."

"Sounds like a virus." Ianto surmises.

"No Father, they're edgy. On alert" Andy explains looking around again "Like they act when they smell a predator around... Peeing on themselves and everything."

A thought catches in Ianto's eyes. He turns back and stares in the direction of the house. You can barely see the roof over the crops. "Andy, please don't call me Father."

The two men stand as the wind blows lightly around them. Andy notices the still expression on Ianto's face. "What's wrong?"

Beat.

"I don't hear my children." Ianto whispers as he starts to move towards the homestead.

Owen watches the thin line of smoke rising from the charred patties on the grill next to the overturned picnic table.

Owen's attention moves as the crops part and his father and Andy enter the backyard. They stop cold when they look in his direction. They begin a slow walk towards him.

Owen Harkness-Jones is seated under the jungle gym with Myfanwy on his lap. Owen is petting Myfanwy's fur gently. Toshiko is on top of the jungle gym curled up in a ball.

As Ianto and Andy get closer, they see Owen is crying.

Then they see the dog is lying on its side and has a BBQ fork lodged deep in its throat.

Beat.

They stare at Owen as he slowly pulls an inhaler from his pocket and brings it to his mouth. He inhales the asthma spray.

Beat.

He lowers the inhaler so he can speak. "She wanted to kill Toshi."

Ianto stares at his ten-year old nephew. "Did she hurt you?"

Owen nods, "No."

His tough exterior breaks as his face starts to tremble. He starts crying. Ianto picks him up in his arms. "I'm so sorry Owen."

Ianto reaches up for Tosh. She has dirt and tears on her face. Beat. She slowly climbs down. Ianto carries both his children as they cry in his arms.

He starts towards the house. Jack walks out from the back holding a bowl of food. "I used a little Tabasco in the potato salad."

Jack sees Myfanwy lying under the jungle gym and his face drops.

"Myfanwy's sick." Toshiko says on her small voice.

"Please tie up Janet to the back of the shed. Make sure the knot's tight." Ianto asks his dead sister's brother-in-law as Jack stands still with potato salad in his hands.

He nods.

The children watch over their uncle's shoulder as Jack runs to their other German shepherd sitting quietly near the house and leads her by her collar across the yard to the shed.

Ianto reaches the porch of his house and opens the screen door.

The last thing the children see as they enter the house is the image of Andy pulling the BBQ fork out of their dead dog's neck.

.

.

.

.

.

Ianto lies in bed. He rests his cheek against the pillow as he lies by himself.

"They're tough cookies, those two. They think Myfanwy's playing with you two up there." He whispers to the ceiling. "At least it got them to sleep."

Ianto stares off.

He smiles a little.

"Okay Miss Puzzle Master. I got one for you... What can make geometric shapes the size of a football field... and what would scare every animal in this county?" he demands of the ceiling crack "Have you figured it out yet? You probably have... Give me a hint Rhiannon... Is it bigger than a bread box?"

The large Harkness-Jones farm house sits in the moonlight.

The sound of crickets fills the night air as annoyingly as traffic in te city and suddenly…it stops.

Silence.

Ianto opens his eyes slowly as he stirs from his sleep. His niece Toshiko stares at him from the edge of the bed. She is five inches away from his face.

Ianto gets startled. "What's the matter?"

"I saw a monster." She replies calmly "Can I have a glass of water?"

Ianto stares at her with confusion, then frowns, "What's wrong with the water next to your bed?"

"It tastes old." She sighs theatrically.

Ianto slowly gets up from the bed. He takes his niece's hand and starts out of the room. "What's the rule about getting up in the middle of the night?"

"Only for pee or poop."

"Right." Ianto sighs as he leads his four-year old niece down the darkened

hall.

Owen's body is half off his bed. Ianto gently lifts him back onto the pillow and covers him up.

There are two glasses of water on Tosh's bedside table. Ianto moves to her bed. He sits on the edge of it. She stares back at him as she holds her panda.

"What are you thinking about?" he finally asks her.

"Why do you talk to mom when you're by yourself?"

"It makes me feel better." He whispers softly.

"Does she ever answer back?"

"No." he tries to be calm and show no sorrow as he thinks of the poor little one's Mama, his best friend. His big sister.

"She doesn't answer me either." Tosh confides finally. They both sit quietly for a moment.

Ianto's eyes drift to the bedroom window. A large silhouetted figure is standing on the roof in the darkness, staring in at him.


	3. Chapter 3

3

The figure moves, his shadow passing over the children's room as he jumps off the roof.

Ianto stands. He looks to his niece with startled eyes.

"Get under a blanket." He lies as he sees her fear "They can't get you under the blankets."

Jack sleeps in front of the family room television that had lost its station, only a white hazy snow in the screen. A hand gently shakes him. Jack wakes and looks up at his Brother-in-law zipping up his overcoat as he whispers softly to him in that exotic voice.

Jack quickly puts on his boots at the front door. "Okay, this guy is trying to scare us. He's messed with our property, he's coming around the house. It's time for an ass whoopin'!"

"This is not an intelligent way to approach this." Ianto protests softly but Jack is already moving. Jack opens the front door. Its pitch black outside.

Jack turn to Ianto and gestures with his fingers. "We both go outside and move around the house in opposite directions. We act crazy, insane with anger. Make him crap in his pants and force him around till we meet up on the other side."

Jack brings his fingers together at the end of a circle and Ianto raises his gaze from them with that eyebrow thing that drives Jack crazy, "Explain, act crazy?"

"Curse and stuff."

"I'm not going to curse." Ianto scoffs.

"You don't mean it. It's just for show." Jack argues, gods but Ianto can be so prudish, so different to his sister who was as crass and likable as the man she married. Jack wishes his brother Gray was here now instead, then chastises himself for his anger. After all, Ianto didn't ask for this either.

"It doesn't sound natural when I curse." Ianto sees the twitch of Jack's eye that tells him he is annoying his brother-in-law…again.

"Just make noises then."

"Explain noises." That eyebrow again and Jack huffs.

Are you going to do this or what?" Jack demands, a bit louder now as he shows his annoyance.

"No I'm not."

"You want him coming in the house next time?" Jack tries a new tactic and is rewarded as Ianto's eyes widen with horror, then they hear movement outside.

Jack and Ianto peer out into the darkness.

"On the count of three." Jack is in charge now as he crouches and Ianto follows his lead, as he always does in the end, has ever since they found themselves in this predicament with a farm and two orphaned children to raise, "One... two... three."

Jack and Ianto go out the front door and head in opposite directions.

Jack is in a full sprint. He hugs the side of the building as he runs. "We're gonna beat your ass bitch!"

Ianto runs through the darkness around the first corner of the house. He waves his arms. "Ahhhh... I'm insane with anger."

Ianto spots a large figure darting around the corner ahead of him, instead of the fear he expected he feels this extreme rage as he thinks of those poor little babans up there still afraid while this…this…arsehat is playing games. "I've lost my mind! It's time for an ass whoopin'!"

Jack turns a corner full speed. The form of a large hulking figure in front of him has come to a stop in the shadows ahead. He seems to blend into the darkness when not moving.

"I'm gonna tear your head off!" Jack charges.

There is a flicker as the figure disappears around the corner of the house and Jack takes off in pursuit.

Ianto and Jack come screaming around two corners and come to a stop facing each other.

They look around, panting heavily.

"I cursed." Ianto gasps out.

"I heard." Jack grins at the unusual display of playfulness.

Ianto's eyes drift above them. "He's on the roof."

They follow the roof around the corner. They find themselves in the backyard.

Their eyes catch movement away from the house. They just catch a glimpse as he disappears into the crops. The swing on the swing set is still moving from being hit.

They stare across the yard silently.

"It was very dark." Jack pointed out, trying to explain their loss.

"Yes it was." Ianto nods, ready to accept that.

.

.

.

Next morning Officer Andy Davidson stands on the porch with his note pad open. He faces Ianto and Jack. "You can't describe him at all? Don't you think that's kind of odd?"

Ianto grimaced at him "It does seem kind of odd doesn't it?"

"I don't know whether to look for a midget or a…"-

"He definitely wasn't a midget." Ianto answers firmly.

"Okay." Andy nods slowly "So he was tall?"

"I would say so." Ianto answers, turning to Jack for backup.

"Probably." Jack agrees with a shrug.

"Over six feet?" Andy asks and both men look at each other with matching frowns.

"It was very dark." Jack says inanely.

"Yes, it was." Ianto nods with confidence in that one.

"We've established that." Andy growls, "Just tell me about his clothing then."

Ianto and Jack stare at Andy Davidson.

"Was he wearing a Scottish kilt or jeans?" Andy is losing patience now.

They keep staring. Andy closes his pad.

"Let me ask you two something. Don't be embarrassed by the answer. It is possible... Just possible now, you might have been chasing each other around? You said you went in opposite directions." Andy asks.

"Andy, it sounds as strange to me saying it, as it is to you hearing it. But we couldn't see him. He stayed mostly in the shadows. All we could make out was movement." Ianto explains as he throws his arms wide "But I'll tell you something with absolute certainty. There was someone watching our house last night. He was looking in my children's windows and I want you to find him Andy."

"I need you to take this seriously, just in case, it is something serious." Ianto finishes speaking. The three men stand in the doorway.

Andy opens his pad. "I apologize."

Owen walks up to the front door. He holds up a baby monitor. "Can I use Tosh's old baby monitor as a walkie-talkie?"

"Yes." Ianto replies with a slow blink that shows he is used to weird requests from this one.

"It needs batteries." Owen says with a matching blink.

"Andy, come inside." The three men follow Owen into the house. They pass through the family room where Toshiko stands at the television.

She is staring at the screen. Footage of a huge crop circle taken from a chopper or drone. Toshiko changes the channel. She finds a cartoon. She sits down on the sofa.

Owen and the men can't see the screen, and move into the kitchen area.

"How certain are you, that this was a male?" Andy asks suddenly.

"I don't know any girls can run like that." Jack says as Ianto opens one of the cabinets and pulls down some batteries. He hands them to Owen.

"These are D's; I need double A's."

"I have some upstairs." Ianto starts out of the kitchen.

"I don't know Jack. I've seen some of those women on the Olympics. They could out run me easy." Andy argues with his childhood friend as they all move into the family room where Toshiko watches cartoons.

"This guy got on the roof in like a second." Jack was still stuck in it.

"Toshi, can you turn down the volume until Andy leaves?" Ianto asks softly and Toshiko nods and moves to the television. The pack of men follow Ianto up the stairs.

"That roof is over ten feet high." Jack insists as he looks to Ianto for help.

"He's telling you the truth, Andy. Whoever it was, is very strong and can jump pretty high." Ianto backs him up as they arrive on the landing and follow Ianto into his bedroom. He moves into his bathroom, they all move in with him.

"They got women's high jumping in the Olympics. They got these Scandinavian women who could jump clean over me." Andy still wants to argue equality here and Ianto ignores them as Jack pulls a face at Andy.

Ianto takes the clock radio from the sink. Tries to open the back. "Shoot, it needs a screwdriver. I have double A's in here."

Ianto waves the radio. The men and Owen move out of the bathroom.

"I know you're making a point Andy. I just don't know what it is." Ianto mutters as they move down the stairs.

"Yesterday afternoon, an out of town woman stopped by the diner and started yelling and cussing cause they didn't have her favourite cigarettes at the vending machine. Scared a couple of customers. No one's seen her since... My point is, we don't know anything about the person you saw. We should just keep all possibilities available." Andy explains as they move through the family room.

Tosh's cartoon is replaced by a special report news icon.

"Uncle, where's the remote?"Toshiko starts looking around the couch.

Ianto stops before entering the kitchen. The group stops with him. He looks at Toshiko searching the couch. He walks over to the television.

There are three glasses of water on the TV set. He stands next to the set. Doesn't see what's on the screen.

"Tosh, you're too old to still be doing this. The rule is, you take a glass of water, you finish it." Ianto scolds, then lifts a glass "Now what's wrong with this one?"

Toshiko stops looking through the sofa cushions and looks to her uncle. Looks at the glass. "There's dust in it."

"This one?"

"A hair."

"This one?"

"Owen took a sip. It has his amoebas in it."

Beat.

Toshiko turns back to her search. Ianto tucks the clock radio under his arm and collects the three glasses. He heads towards the kitchen.

Just another day in the madhouse.

God he misses his sister.

He misses Cardiff too but this is his life now.

He knows these poor babans miss their parents more.


	4. Chapter 4

4

"Excluding the possibility that a female Scandinavian Olympian was running around outside our house last night, what else is a possibility?" Jack asks calmly and Andy looks at him with a sneer.

"I'm not done asking questions and I don't appreciate the sarcasm."

They follow Ianto and Owen through the swinging door into the kitchen.

Ianto puts the glasses in the sink with a group of other half-filled water glasses and opens the drawer to pull out a screwdriver. He starts opening the clock radio.

"Do you have anyone who might have a grudge or something against you? Maybe a church member, who might not have liked the fact, that you left the church?"

Ianto looks at Andy. "I don't think so."

"Do you owe anybody money? You can tell me off the record if you need too."

"No." Ianto barks.

"No." Jack echoes with equal annoyance.

Owen hands Ianto the baby monitor and Ianto starts replacing the batteries.

"Is anything missing?" Andy asks.

"No." Ianto hands Owen the monitor. He turns it ON.

"It's still making the noises. It's broken." Owen grumps.

"It's old Owen." Ianto replied sadly and Owen heads out of the kitchen.

"Listen, I was out of line with that whole female Scandinavian Olympian thing." Jack apologises.

Andy nods.

"It's just that, I'm pretty strong and pretty fast. And I was running as fast as I could. And this guy...He was just toying with us."

Jack walks out of the kitchen. Ianto watches Andy think it over.

Ianto moves to a windowsill where more glasses of water sit. He picks them up. Sees two more on the coffee table. He gives up and puts the two glasses back on the windowsill.

"Could everyone just take a seat on the couch? I have some preliminary thoughts." Andy demands and Owen sits with his monitor next to Tosh, who quietly watches the TV. Jack and Ianto squeeze in next to Owen. "There are three possibilities here. We'll call them one, two and three. The level one scenario is that there is a sane individual, who for real reasons wants to do you harm. I really don't believe that's what we're looking at here. In my opinion, whoever this is, they don't want to do harm to you all. That's kind of clear."

"The level two scenario is, this is a mentally unstable person who's fixated on you and your family. This is a possibility, but a very slim one." Andy looks at his captive audience, "I assure you I will treat all three possibilities carefully, but in all likely hood we are looking at what we'll call a level three scenario. He's a watcher. Someone who this is a game for. He's laying low. Doesn't want to be seen. But he wants to watch you. Study you folks."

Andy walks towards the windows. Ianto, Jack and Owen follow him with their eyes. Andy walks next to the television.

On the screen there are more crop circles being shown, smash changing ot other fields. This is not a single case.

Andy turns to them.

Ianto, Jack and Owen stare at the screen.

"Now I don't want you all to worry about this no more. You're making more of this than it is." Andy pauses and then continues "You guys have had a tough couple of days with the vandalism to the crops and the death of your shepherd. Maybe you guys should do something fun? Let me worry about this person. Let me find out who it is and then - What the hell are you people looking at?"

Andy comes around to see the screen.

More crop circles, people in them walking around with interest. Then another.

"I'll be damned." Andy snorts.

"Turn up the volume Tosh." Ianto says sofly as Andy finds a seat without taking his eyes off the screen.

Toshiko gets up. "I can't find the remote."

She presses the up arrows on the TV controls.

" _\- images were shot yesterday afternoon by a thirty-four year old local camera man in Kerala, a southern city of India. It is the eighteenth reported crop circle found in that country in the last seventy-two hours…"_

The television report cuts to Columbia University Professor. "Crop _circles first emerged in the late seventies with the renewed interest in extraterrestrial life. They died out by the early eighties; dismissed as hoaxes. This new resurgence is wholly different. Elements of it are unexplainable. The speed and the quantity in which it has appeared implies the coordination of hundreds of individuals over many countries...There is only a limited amount of explanations. Either this is one of the most elaborate hoaxes ever created, or basically...It's for real."_

Owen takes the asthma inhaler from his pocket and breathes in deeply. "Extraterrestrials."

"What in God's name is going on?" Andy whispers more to himself than the rest of the room.

.

..

.

.

The two men walk down the driveway to Andy's patrol car.

"Don't ask me what I think. Cause I can't think straight right now. I'm going back to the station. Have a cup of Maria's coffee and try to think clear. After that I might make some calls." Andy sighs, then turns back to face Ianto "Hoaxes... People got way too much time on their hands. But I'll tell you something, what I said in there, still goes. You and your family have been through a lot in the last two days... Not to mention what happened to you all seven months ago."

"Six months."

Andy stares at Ianto.

"And three weeks." Ianto finishes.

"It's left its mark still. The last thing these children need to do, is worry about some crazy things happening in the world. Take them into town. Get their minds – your mind, on everyday things. It's good medicine."

"It's good advice..." Ianto assures him "Say hi to Maria for me."

"You take care of yourself..." Andy replies, pauses and then adds with discomfort "Ianto."


	5. Chapter 5

5

The Harkness-Jones family rides in their station wagon. Ianto drives.

Jack is shotgun. The children are in the back.

Owen leans forward and turns on the radio.

 _... signs intended to be seen from the sky -_

CLICK.

Ianto turns it off angrily "No radio either... Just for a while."

Owen nods and then plops back into the backseat.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

Downtown Haven County. A group of small stores along a quiet street.

The Harkness-Jones station wagon pulls in front of a parking meter.

Ianto steps out the driver's side and looks around. Jack puts change in the meter.

Owen walks up to Ianto with Tosh. "Book money."

Owen holds out his hand. Ianto gives his nephew a look as he reaches into his back pocket. "Only one."

Owen takes the money Ianto gives him, then takes Tosh's hand and walks down the sidewalk.

Ianto watches them turn into a store.

Jack steps onto the sidewalk. Hands in his pockets as he walks away.

Ianto turns and calls after him. "Meet back in fifteen minutes."

Jack waves over his shoulder. He keeps walking.

Ianto starts across the street to the pharmacy.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

Williams Book Store.

A mom and pop bookstore. Three isles wide. A couple in their mid forties, sit behind their counter and watch a black and white TV. The picture on the screen is of crop circles, they are watching with interest.

Owen steps up to the counter. "Extraterrestrials?"

"That's what they keep alluding to. It's just a bunch of crock. They're trying to sell sodas, plain and simple. I've been watching these reports since morning. I've seen twelve soda commercials so far." Rhys Williams barks at the child without looking away from the screen "Twelve!"

"Do you have book on extraterrestrials?" Owen says with a eye roll that finally bears some resemblance to his uncle Ianto.

"Don't tell me you believe this horse manure?"

Owen shrugs. Mrs. Williams pushes her husband aside.

"As a matter of fact, I think we have one. Came by mistake in a shipment. Decided to keep it for city people." Mrs. Williams points over to the far corner. "Last row. Third book from the left pet.

 **.**

 **..**

 **.**

 **.**

Ianto waits at a white counter. A gum chewing pharmacist in her early twenties, who looks like she's in her teens, glances through back shelves of medicines as she listens to the radio.

 _ **Why is no one saying the obvious? This is just a rash case of copycats. Someone, somewhere, does the first one. It's on TV, it's on the internet. In less than an hour a couple hundred people get the same brilliant idea and here we are... on the verge of mass hysteria.**_

"It was asthma medicine right Father?"

"For Owen Harkness-Jones. And it's not Father anymore." Ianto says wearily like he has to every time he comes here.

The Pharmacist looks back at Ianto and then reaches up and turns off the radio. She quietly finds the prescription on the shelf and moves to the counter across from Ianto.

She doesn't ring it up. She just stands there fiddling with the bag holding Owen's medicine.

Can I ask you a favour Father?"

Ianto stares at the girl.

He nods "yes."

"Can I take confession with you?"

Ianto leans forward on the counter and takes the girl's hands in his. He talks very slowly. "Carla, I - am - not - a -reverend - anymore. I haven't been for six months. You know this."

Beat.

When Carla speaks her voice is childlike and begging. **"** All this stuff on TV...Joe Gills was in here talking about the end of the world... I'm just a little scared. Please. I need to take confession with you.

Ianto looks at the young girl's teary eyes. He exhales slowly.

.

.

.

….

..

.

Jack stares up at a poster with a muscular guy in an Army uniform standing at attention on a beach.

We are in a narrow Army Recruiting Centre. Inside the small storefront space is a desk. A gentleman sporting a Crew-cut sits behind it.

A young man, Jack's age, sits at a side card table filling out some forms.

"I got it figured."

Jack realizes the crew-cut guy is talking to him.

"You do?"

"I've had two separate folks tell me they think there are strangers around these parts the last couple of nights. Can't tell what they look like, cause they're staying in the shadows - covert like. No one's got hurt mind you... And that's the giveaway."

"I see." Jack says in a tone that says he clearly doesn't.

"It's called probing. It's a military procedure. You send a reconnaissance group, very small, to check out things. Not to engage, but to evaluate the situation. Evaluate the level of danger. Make sure things are all clear..."

"Clear for what?" Jack is curious now, maybe this nut has something.

The crew-cut guy savours the beat of silence. "... For the rest of them."

It takes a second, but Jack smiles. The crew-cut guy smiles back. Jack points at a poster. "You have a pamphlet or something I can read?"

The crew-cut guy reaches to a stack of brochures. Picks the top brochure and hands it to Jack.

The crew-cut guy begins to stare at Jack closely. "Hey you didn't used to play baseball did you?"

Jack looks up from the brochure.

"Shit. I know you. You're Jack Harkness. I was there that day you hit that five hundred and eighty seven footer over the left field wall and set the record. That thing had a motor on it... It's still the record right?"

Jack nods, "yes. I got the bat at home... On the wall."

"You got two minor league home run records don't you?"

"Five." Jack finally admits with obvious discomfort "The five longest."

"Boy, why aren't you in the pros making stacks of cash and getting handfuls of T and A?"

"Cause he also has the minor league strikeout record." A voice mocks and Jack turns to the man, about his age, who sits at the folding table.

"Hello Eugene."

"He'd just swing as hard as he could every time. It didn't matter what the coach said, didn't matter who was on base, he'd whip that bat through the air as hard as he could... Looked like a lumber Jack chopping down a tree." The man says mockingly "Jack here, struck out more times than any two players."

"You really hold the strikeout record?" Crew-cut asks.

Jack tucks the pamphlet in his jacket. Looks like he's not going to say anything. When he does, the words are soft and worn; they've been said a hundred times.

"Felt wrong not to swing."

The crew-cut guy shakes his head. Jack turns and starts walking.

As he passes Eugene, Jack makes a small, quick move in Eugene's direction, like he might hit him. Eugene flinches and covers his face.

Jack walks out the door of the army recruiting office.


	6. Chapter 6

6

"I cursed thirty-seven times last week... I said the f-word a couple times, but mostly "shits" and "bastards." Is "Douche bag" a curse?"

Ianto glances at the girl as she sits sideways to him at the counter.

"I suppose it's in its usage." He shrugs.

"How about "John you're a douche bag for kissing Barbara?" then?" she asks.

"That's a curse."

"Then it's not thirty-seven. It's seventy-one."

Ianto's eyes widen.

"I stole a bottle of Ruby red lip stick from K-mart... I punched my brother in the back three times..."

Ianto looks around the empty store for help.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

… **.**

 **..**

 **..**

 **.**

Toshiko sits at a tiny reading table and drinks a glass of water. There is another glass, half-full, on her table. Mrs. Williams watches as the little girl takes careful sips.

Toshiko looks up with a grimace. "It's contaminated."

"Rhys, there's something wrong with our water!" Mrs. Williams calls out with worry.

Owen doesn't look up from the extraterrestrial book. **"** Your water is fine. Toshiko has a thing about her drinking water. She's had it her whole life. Like a tick people have. Except it's not a tick."

"Is that right?"

Toshiko shrugs. She places the glass she sipped on the table with the other glass.

Mrs. Williams stares at the four-year old.

"Thirteen!" comes a roar from the counter an everyone turns to the front of the store where Mr. Williams points to the TV screen.

A Coke Cola commercial is on.

Mrs. Williams turns back to find Owen holding out the extraterrestrial book to her. "I'll take it."

 **.**

…

 **.**

 **..**

 **.**

Jack, Owen and Toshiko are waiting in the parked car.

The driver's side opens and Ianto sits in.

"Pharmacy crowded?" Jack asks.

"I don't want any one of you spending time with Carla Alertly alone. Is that understood?"

Everyone nods, "yes."

Ianto puts the key in the ignition and turns the car on.

Jack watches as Ianto's hand goes to put the car in reverse - and then stops.

Ianto is staring out the windshield. Jack follows his stare to a thin, thirty-year old man in a leather jacket coming out of a store. Jack's face changes expression too. They both stare as the man passes in front of the car.

"Is that him?" Owen asks softly as his eyes follow the man.

"Yeah." Jack chokes out.

Everyone in the car watches the man in the leather jacket as he steps off the sidewalk towards the truck. It's here that he notices the stares. He glances up to see the faces watching him from the station wagon.

The leather Jacketed man keeps moving to his truck. He gets in, turns it on, and without looking over to the station wagon, backs out of the parking lot.

The Harkness family sits quietly.

"Who is he?" Toshiko asks with interest.

Nobody says anything for the longest time.

"He's the man who killed mom and Papa" Owen finally hisses.

Ianto puts the station wagon in reverse and backs out into the street.

 **.**

 **.**

 **..**

…

 **.**

The crops sway hypnotically in a gentle breeze.

The Harkness-Jones station wagon pulls into their driveway. It comes to a stop in front of the house. The engine goes off. No one gets out.

All four sit quietly not getting out.

A crackle of noise.

Ianto and Jack turn and see Owen pull the baby monitor out of his jacket. He holds it in his lap.

"What if Tosh's baby monitor is picking up signals from the extraterrestrials?" Owen asks his uncles.

"All this crop stuff. They did it twenty-five years ago. It was a joke." Jack tried to comfort the child.

"It's just static Owen. Turn it up and see." Ianto suggests.

Owen turns a knob on the side.

A sudden beep and whining comes through the static. The red lights on the monitor go haywire.

"It's a code." Owen says excitedly waving the monitor.

"Let me see that please." Ianto asks with his hand out.

Owen hands Ianto the monitor in the front seat.

"It's noise." Jack complains. "It's broken Owen. It'll just keep doing this."

"Let's get out of the car okay?" Ianto asks wearily. This car ride was a bad idea, it has done nothing for his nerves.

"We might lose the signal." Owen argues.

"We can't just sit in the car in our own driveway like this." Ianto waves a hand.

"We'll look like mental patients." Jack snorts in agreement.

Nobody gets out of the station wagon.

"I'm getting out now." Ianto rolls his eyes and reaches for the door handle.

"Don't do it." Owen begs.

Ianto pulls the handle. His door opens. He waits before getting out. The other three station wagon doors open right after.

Ianto stands and closes his driver side door.

The monitor changes pitch as the beeps disappear and the static becomes a loud, swirling sound.

"Nobody move!" Owen roars with excitement.

Everyone becomes frozen, standing next to the station wagon.

Three of the doors are open.

"Voices. Did you hear that?" Owen whispers as something is barely audible in the background of the noise.

Everyone stares at the baby monitor in Ianto's hand.

"Not English though. You heard the voices right Uncle Jack?" Owen asks with glee.

"I heard them Owen." Toshiko says comfortingly to her beloved brother.

Ianto doesn't move his arm. He keeps it out in the air where he had it as he closed his door. Ianto looks to Jack over the roof of the station wagon.

"It's probably picking up another baby monitor." Ianto shakily surmises.

"That's right." Jack nods. "Let me see it."

Ianto moves. He hands the monitor over the hood.

Jack reaches for it.

The swirling sound suddenly becomes distinct voices, two different ones speaking something unintelligible.

"Stop!" Owen screams.

Ianto and Jack freeze - both touching the monitor over the roof of the station wagon.

"It doesn't sound like words." Owen says as he watched the lights flash.

Ianto looks around at his rapt family.

"See this is why we're not watching those news reports. People get obsessed." Ianto says angrily "I'm letting go now."

"No Uncle!" Owen wails "Don't do it!"

"You'll lose the signal!" Jack agrees with alarm and Ianto looks at Jack, who's now one of them.

Owen is the first one to move. "Don't let go."

He moves from the back passenger door to the back bumper where he begins to climb onto the station wagon.

"Owen?" Ianto says with confusion.

"It gets clearer, the higher you hold it." Owen crawls on the roof and takes the monitor ever-so gently out of Ianto and Jack's outstretched hands.

"Owen, be careful." Ianto begs.

"I got him." Jack climbs up over the side and joins Owen on the roof.

Jack keeps a hand on his nephew. Owen raises the monitor above his head.

Toshiko runs to the front bumper and climbs onto the hood.

"Hold on." Ianto cuts her off by taking a seat on the hood. He takes hold of Tosh. All four are on the car now.

Owen stands up on the roof of the station wagon. Jack holds him by the waist.

Toshiko tries to get up onto the roof by climbing over Ianto and the windshield. Ianto boosts her up over his head with both hands.

"Jack you got her."

Jack reaches out his free hand. Toshiko reaches out to him.

"Stop!" Owen yells as the sound changes.

Everyone stops exactly where they are. Ianto holds Toshiko over his head. Toshiko reaches out to Jack. Jack sits on the roof with one arm out as Jack clasps her hand. Owen stands with the baby monitor raised high in the air. The family remains very still on the hood of their station wagon as they listen.

"There's two of them talking." Owen whispers, "Hear that?"

The sounds are gurgles and clicks, a series and then gaps like someone is taking a breath between sentences. Then the different tone as another answers.

Ianto struggles to hold Toshiko up. Toshiko struggles to keep her arms out. Jack struggles not to turn his face to the incredible noises above them.

The noises start to increase, more joining until it is a cacophony of noise then...

Click

Silence

Everyone looks up at the baby monitor.

The red lights are off.

"They hung up." Owen says with annoyance, like it is an insult.

Ianto brings Toshiko down into his lap. Owen takes a seat next to Jack on the roof. The family sits like mental patients on the top of their station wagon.


	7. Chapter 7

7

The lights are on in the kitchen. We see Ianto, Jack and the children doing dishes after dinner.

The dog is barking outside.

Janet, the remaining German shepherd is tied to a post outside the barn. The dog whips back and forth frantically.

She keeps looking in their direction.

Ianto steps out the back screen door with a bowl of dog food and a bowl of water. He walks towards the frantic dog. When he gets close, Ianto slows. He approaches the dog carefully. He places the two bowls close but not too close. The dog has no interest in them. She keeps barking and glaring in the direction of the corn now.

Ianto watches her for a few moments, and then turns and looks across the yard out into the crops.

Ianto stands frozen looking across his yard. Janet, the dog turns in desperate circles behind him. Ianto's eyes stay focused on the same point in the darkness.

He talks to no one. "You know something? Even entertaining the possibility of this for a minute has been exciting."

Ianto starts to move.

"I can see how people can get carried away with this type of thing." Ianto reaches the barbecue area. There's a flashlight on the picnic table. Ianto turns it on, a beam of light picks out the grass in front of him.

Ianto starts toward the crops.

"It's a kind of faith. It's an intoxicating thing to believe in something you can't see."

Ianto steps right up to them. He hesitates and then steps into the field of corn.

He can't see two feet in any direction. Six foot stalks of corn line Ianto on all sides. "You were always good at that..."

Ianto starts following a narrow path. His shoulders brush crops on either side.

"Believing in things you couldn't see. You would have been the first person on that station wagon wouldn't you? You and Owen would have been wrestling for that baby monitor."

 **SOMETHING MOVES UP AHEAD.**

Ianto stops. Nothing but crops disappearing into darkness.

"It'll be secretly kind of sad for everybody, when this turns out to be - all just make believe."

Something is next to him, he feels it. Ianto spins and aims the flashlight, yelling angrily "You're wasting your time here! I'm not going to report this or anything you do to me crops, to the news or TV or anybody! You're not going to get famous!"

There is no response.

 **IANTO CAN HEAR HIS OWN** **BREATHING... IT SOUNDS HEAVY, ECHOISH... LIKE THERE'S TWO OF HIM.**

Ianto holds his breath.

 **THE SOUND OF SOMEONE ELSE** **BREATHING CONTINUES BEHIND HIM.**

Ianto turns and drops the flashlight at the same time.

 **IANTO IS IN DARKNESS NOW. HE LOOKS IN THE DIRECTION OF THE BREATHING. BUT CAN'T SEE ANYTHING. HIS OWN BREATHING IS FAST AND LOUD NOW.**

Ianto kneels down and gropes in the darkness. His hands search over the ground in all directions. They finally touch the flashlight. Ianto quickly fumbles with it to find the "on" button. He does.

 **A BEAM OF LIGHT SHOOTS ACROSS THE GROUND. SOMETHING POWDERY WHITE STANDS FIVE FEET AWAY.**

It instantly moves into the darkness. Ianto tries to get up. He stumbles backwards into the crops. He's tangled in crops as he struggles to rise. He gets up and starts running.

Leaves and stalks slap him from all directions. He panics.

He doesn't know where he is.

Ianto makes a sudden right turn. He puts his hands in front of him to protect his face and eyes. He's running as fast as he can.

 **HE HEARS STALKS OF CORN BREAKING BEHIND HIM.**

Another sudden turn, this time left. Ianto emerges into his backyard.

Ianto keeps running across the yard. When Ianto reaches the porch stairs, he stops and turns. There is no one behind him. The wall of crops fifty feet away sway in the gentle night breeze.

Ianto gains control of his breathing. He turns and walks to the screen door, slowing his breathing down with each step.

Ianto steps into the kitchen. His hair is messed. His shirt has a few leaves from corn stalks stuck to it. He locks the back door.

The children don't notice his presence. They're splashing each other at the sink as they clean the dinner dishes.

Ianto looks through the kitchen doorway to the family room.

He sees Jack there.

Jack's hands are in his pockets as he stares at the wooden baseball bat mounted above the fireplace. Jack doesn't notice him either.

Ianto takes two steps to the kitchen table and slowly takes a seat. His breathing is a slow controlled pant. He runs one shaky hand through his hair as he gathers himself and thinks. His kind eyes stare down at the ground as he slows his mind.

Jack is the first to notice him. He moves from where the baseball bat is hung, into the kitchen. As he passes the children at the sink, he turns off the faucet.

The children stop playing and look up to Jack. They follow his stare to the kitchen table.

Ianto looks up at them.

"Okay." Ianto whispers "Let's turn on the TV."

The TV pops into life.

 **\- first appeared fifty two minutes ago… as you can see the thousands of lights above us here in the city region seem to be moving in a sequence, like a large double 'V' and they-**

Toshiko puts her finger to the screen and counts the hovering lights. "Fourteen."

Owen, Jack and Ianto stand silently before the television set.

 **Mexico City officials as well as U.S. officials have confirmed that these are not air craft from either government's air force. The first sighting was made by an Air Mexico 747 en route from Mazatlan to New York as the unidentified crafts entered Mexico City air space. They were not detected by radar by either country.**

"The crazies were right." Jack whispers to Ianto with wonder.

Everyone just watches the fourteen lights hovering on the screen.

"We have to tape this..." Owen reaches into the pile of video tapes under the television stand. He grabs one.

Toshiko snatches the video as Owen tries to put it into the VCR.

"My ballet recital."

Owen stares at his sister. "Listen Tosh. This is very important.

Everything people have written about in science books is going to change. The history of the world's future is on the TV right now. We need to record this so you can show your children this tape and say you were there...For your children Tosh."

"My ballet recital."

"Uncle!"

Ianto doesn't take his eyes off the screen. "Find another tape."

Ianto and Jack sit down at the same time on the sofa.

They both have the same dazed, slow movements.

Owen rummages through the pile of videos frantically. He finds one and reaches for the VCR. "Uncle Jack, I'm using your tape."

Owen slams the tape marked "Bay Watch" into the VCR and presses record. He's breathing heavy now. Wheezing actually.

Owen moves to the sofa and takes a seat in between his uncles. Toshiko walks over and squeezes in also. The four of them stare at the television.

 **... You're seeing a live feed from our NBC affiliate down in Mexico City. The time there is 7:17pm. This image has not been adjusted or enhanced in any way. What you're seeing is real. Everything they wrote in science books is about to change…**

"Told you." Owen brings his asthma spray to his mouth and inhales.

...

.

.

The family room lights are off now. The TV is still on. The sound on mute. There are a couple glasses of Tosh's water on the television now.

The fourteen lights are still hovering on the screen. Owen is asleep on Ianto's lap. Toshiko is asleep on Jack's shoulder.

"Some people are probably thinking this is the end of the world." Jack whispers and Ianto turns his sleepy eyes away from the screen to Jack.

"That's true." Ianto sighs.

Jack looks him in the eyes. "Do you think it's a possibility?"

"Yes." Ianto whispers softly.

"How can you say that?"

"That wasn't the answer you wanted?"

"Can you at least pretend to be like you used to be? Give me some comfort?" Jack asks with open dismay.

Ianto thinks it over then whispers ... There are all different ways you can tell that there's someone really there watching out for us. You see signs. Sometimes they're little ones. You think of someone. The phone rings. They're on the phone... Sometimes they're big, like fourteen lights hovering over Mexico City. Sure, there are a lot of people watching this who think this could be a bad thing. But there are a lot of people watching this, who think it's a miracle. A sign of God's existence. It's all in how you look at things Jack. What you have to decide is what kind of person you are? Are you the type who believes in miracles and looks for signs or are you the kind who believes, things just happen by chance?"

Jack is deep in thought before replying "I was at this party once. I'm on a couch with Sara Morelli. She was just sitting there, looking beautiful and staring at me. I go to lean in and kiss her and I realize I have gum in my mouth. I turn and take out the gum. Stuff it in my paper cup next to the sofa and turn around. Sara Morelli throws up all over herself. I knew the second it happened. It was a miracle. I could have been kissing her when she threw up. That would have scared me for life. I may never have recovered."

Jack looks at the TV screen. "I'm a miracle man. Those lights are a miracle."

Ianto smiles. "There you go."

"So which type are you?" Jack turns to him.

"Do you feel comforted?" Ianto enquires.

"Yes."

"What does it matter then?" Ianto shrugs.

The two of them turn back to the silent screen of the television. It's a long beat before Ianto speaks. "Do you know what Rhiannon's last words were before they killed her?"

Jack turns and stares quietly at him.

"She said, "See", and then her eyes glazed a bit and she said... "Tell Jack to swing away." Then…gone."

Jack's mouth opens a bit. Ianto turns and chuckles at his expression.

"Do you know why she said that?"

Jack nods, "No."

"Because the nerve endings in her brain were firing as she died, and some random memory of us at one of your baseball games popped into her head." Ianto sighs and lets his hand slide into Jack's "There is no one watching out for us Jack. We're all on our own."

Ianto turns back to the television

"Well…at least we are together." Jack squeezes softly as he watches the man he is falling in love with try to be strong.

The children safe in their laps.


	8. Chapter 8

8

Ianto's eyes open. Daylight floods the family room. He is alone on the couch. Alone in the room.

He looks to the television. It's not there.

Ianto moves to his feet and look around the room. His eyes stop on an extension cord that runs from a wall outlet in the family room, across the front hall, and under a closet door.

Ianto moves to the door.

Ianto opens the closet.

Jack looks up. He's seated on a kitchen chair with the television on a roll-away stand crammed in with him.

"For the kids' protection. All they were doing was watching TV from five a.m. I felt like they were getting obsessed like you said." Jack explained as he moved to give Ianto space and once again Ianto felt the comfort of his touch as their thighs pushed together on the small chairs. "They should be playing furry, furry rabbit or tea party or something right?"

"What's furry, furry rabbit?"

"That's a game isn't it?" Jack blinks, "Anyway...There's been some interesting developments."

"What time is it?"

"Eleven a.m." Jack answers as his hand absently find Ianto's "They're gone."

Ianto looks at the TV screen. There's a daylight shot of Mexico City. The skies are empty above it.

"But they're not really gone. We just can't see them. Early this morning a bird flew right at the area where the lights were hovering last night." Jack puts a finger in the sky on the screen. "It stopped dead in the air and fell straight down."

Jack's finger trails to the bottom of the screen and Ianto's eyes follow "They caught it on tape and they've been playing it all morning. They found the bird. His head crushed in. When you see the footage it looks like the bird flew into a wall in the sky. They think they have some invisible shield thing going, like an optical illusion."

"The bird could have had a heart attack and crushed his head when he fell." Ianto surmises feebly.

"Already thought of. Two other birds did the same thing an hour later. Not as dramatic. They lived. But you could see they hit something."

Ianto looks at the empty sky on the screen with different eyes.

"They're still there hovering. In fact, some people think there's more of them now. All over the place. Over us even. And there's a theory about the crop circles now. They think it could be some kind of landmark, visual mapping system - so they can navigate. Coordinate. Makes sense doesn't it?" Jack is entranced.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

Inside Ianto's bedroom his bathroom door is closed. The same sun-faded outline of where a large cross used to hang, is stained on the wall next to the door.

Ianto opens the bathroom door and steps out with wet hair.

He towels it dry as he moves to his bedroom window.

The backyard is large and green with a wooden jungle gym. A single tree throws shade onto a picnic table. The back of the yard is lined by corn crops. Golden and brown. Six feet high.

The crops go on well beyond view. Ianto stares at them quietly. Watching.

Then he hears whispering and he cants his head as he tries to hear.

He listens closely.

The kids?

Ianto walks into the hall and looks in their room.

Owen and Toshiko are seated on the edge of their bed. They have tin foil wrapped around their heads like a helmet. Ianto stares at his children.

"So the aliens can't read our minds." Owen explains calmly.

"Oh."

"They tell you everything in this book." Owen holds up the book he bought from Williams' bookstore.

Ianto enters the room. The children make space for him on the bed. He takes a seat between them. Owen puts the book on his lap.

"It says they're probably very small - like my height - because, as their brains developed, there was no use for physical development." Owen is animated as he explains "It says they're probably vegetarians, because they would have realized the benefits of such a diet."

"Who wrote this book?" Ianto frowns.

Ianto looks on the back cover for a picture. There's none there.

"Scientists who have been persecuted for their beliefs." Owen drags the book open again.

"That means they're unemployed."

Owen closes the book. "Uncle, are you going to be serious?"

Toshiko points at the book. "Yeah, serious."

Ianto looks at his two children with foil on their heads. "I don't know what got into me."

Beat. Owen puts the book on his uncle's lap.

"There are pictures." Owen opens the tome. "Dr. Bimboo, one of the authors of the book …"

"Bimboo?"

"Uncle."

"I just asked his name."

"You had a tone." Owen warns.

Ianto acknowledges with a nod that he did have a tone.

"He says there are two reasons why Extraterrestrials would visit us." Owen turns the page. "To make contact in the spirit of exploration and furthering the knowledge of the universe."

Ianto looks at an illustration of a small, bulbous headed figure shaking hands with a bearded human.

"Or the other reason... They're hostile. They've used up the resources on their planet and are looking to harvest our planet next." Owen turns the page. There is a picture of a house. A space ship is hovering over the home shooting laser beams at it.

"Looks a little like our house doesn't it?" Ianto points out before he can stop himself.

Owen and Toshiko lean in closer to look at the picture.

"The same windows." Toshiko agreed.

"That's weird." Owen mutters with awe.

The three of them study the picture of the house. It's on fire. Their eyes move to the front yard. There are three bodies lying dead on the front lawn. Two are children.

The phone rings.

The children scream and cling to their uncle.

Ianto gets up.

He closes the book. "That's enough from Dr. Bimboo for now. Everybody in this house needs to calm down and eat some fruit or something."

Ianto steps out into the hallway. He tucks the book under his arm and picks up the phone.

"Father."

 **THROUGH THE PHONE WE HEAR SUDDEN SCUFFLING, A CHAIR SQUEAL** **AGAINST THE FLOOR … and then the phone disconnects.**

"Hello?" Ianto whispers.

 **NOTHING BUT DEAD AIR.**

Ianto looks at the receiver and then slowly hangs it up.

Ianto walks down the hall to a small window.

The window looks down the driveway and out onto the road.

Ianto stares into the distance. About a half-mile away we see the roof of a house.

Ianto gazes at it for a beat.

Ianto comes down the stairs with his overcoat on. He moves to the closet door and knocks on it before opening it.

Jack looks up from the television.

"I'm going out for a few minutes." Ianto explains, feeling the need to reach out and touch Jack's hand as he speaks and there is a moment of calm "No one leaves this house. No one."

Jack nods. "Where are you going?"

"John Hart's house."

Ianto starts down the hall. Jack steps out of the closet for the first time. He looks down the hall shocked.

"Why?"

Ianto unlocks the front door.

"I think he just called here."


	9. Chapter 9

9

"You don't think something bad will happen do you Owen?"

Owen pulls his eye away from the telescope that is set up on the window seat in his room. "Why, you got one of your feelings again?"

Toshiko nods, "Yes."

"Is it bad?"

Toshiko nods, "Yes" slowly.

"If it does, I won't let anything bad happen to you."

Toshiko hugs Owen tight. "I don't want you to die."

"Who said I was going to die?"

Toshiko keeps hugging Owen.

"Who said I was going to die?"

Owen peels Toshiko's arms off of him.

"Come on Tosh. I need to keep a look out."

Toshiko lets go. Owen puts his eye to the eyepiece of the telescope.

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A mailbox reads "J. Hart"

There is a gray and white house at the end of the quarter mile driveway. We saw the roof of this house from the Harkness-Jones hallway window.

Ianto stands at the front door and knocks.

Ianto tries to look inside.

Curtains block his view.

Ianto walks around the porch. Turns the corner of the house. He looks in a side window.

 **A KITCHEN. THE KITCHEN CHAIRS ARE ON THEIR SIDE. THE KITCHEN TABLE ITSELF, IS UPSIDE DOWN, LEANING AGAINST A CLOSED DOOR. THE ROOM IS TOTALLY WRECKED.**

Ianto stands straight up. He looks around nervously. He takes two steps back towards the front of the house and the safety of his station wagon before he notices the truck parked to the side of the house.

There is someone sitting in it.

The passenger side window of the truck is open. Ianto steps up to it and looks inside. The thin man with the leather Jacket, we saw in town, sits behind the wheel. He stares out the windshield. He is covered in sweat.

"Hello John."

John Hart doesn't look over. Doesn't react. Keeps staring. He clutches the steering wheel tightly, turning his knuckles a yellow white.

Ianto glances to the backseat of the truck. There are two large bags over flowing with clothes.

Ianto's eyes gently move back to John and drift down to the the blood stains.

"What happened John?"

John doesn't look over when he speaks.

"I wrote your number down to call you. It's been sitting next to the phone for six months. When I knew it was inside the house, I couldn't think of any other number to call. I panicked." He says shakily, like he is in shock "Thank you for coming Father."

"You're welcome John."

Tears start falling down John's face.

"I worked so long that night. I ain't never fallen asleep driving before. And never since. Most of the ride home, there wasn't a car insight in either direction. If I'd fallen asleep then, I'd a ended up in a ditch with a head ache. It had to happen at that right moment. That certain ten-fifteen seconds when I passed them walking. It was like it was meant to be." John finally turns. His red face quivers as he talks. "I guess if this is the end of the world, I'm screwed right? People who kill Reverends' sisters and their sister's husbands aren't exactly ushered to the front of the line in heaven."

John starts the car.

"Where you going John?"

"To the lake. The way I see it, all the places marked in the crops and such - none of them are really near water. I figure they don't like water." John says in the dreamy voice, "Can't be any worse than here."

"John, did you see one of them?"

He looks at Ianto. "I'm truly sorry for what I've done to you and yours."

The two men stare at each other for a beat. John looks away. He puts the car in drive. "And don't open my pantry Father. I locked one of them in there."

Ianto steps away as the truck moves forward and pulls down the driveway.

 **..**

… **.**

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Jack's head is leaned against a bunch of winter coats.

His eyes are closed.

 _ **... The startling footage we're about to show you was photographed by a forty-two year old Romero Valadares….**_

Jack's eyes open.

 _ **This video was taken yesterday afternoon at his son's seventh birthday, in the city of Passo Fundo, Brazil. It was sent to the local news bureau there and satellited to us a few minutes ago. All initial opinions are; this is genuine.**_

 **What you are about to see, may disturb you.**

Jack sits up in his chair.

 **THE PICTURE OF THE ANCHORMAN IS REPLACED BY A HANDHELD VIDEO IMAGE ON THE TV SCREEN. THE IMAGE IS OF A FAMILY ROOM WHERE A BUNCH OF CHILDREN IN DRESS CLOTHES CROWD AROUND A SLIDING GLASS WINDOW.**

 **THE CHILDREN ARE SPEAKING PORTUGUESE EXCITEDLY. THEY LOOK AT THE CAMERA AND POINT TO THE OUTSIDE THROUGH THE GLASS DOORS.**

 **THE HANDHELD IMAGE MOVES OVER THEIR SHOULDERS TO LOOK OUT THROUGH THE GLASS INTO A CRAMPED BACKYARD. THERE IS A RECTANGULAR TABLE WITH PARTY DECORATIONS AND AN UNTOUCHED BIRTHDAY CAKE ON IT. COLORFUL BALLOONS FLOAT AROUND THE BACKYARD. THERE IS NO ONE OUTSIDE.**

 **THE IMAGES PANS AROUND THE DENSE FOLIAGE THAT FORMS A WALL AROUND THE YARD. THE IMAGE ZOOMS AND SEARCHES IN THE DARKNESS OF THE BRANCHES.**

The chair in the closet groans as Jack leans forward a little towards the television screen.

 **WE HEAR A BURST OF PORTUGUESE. THE IMAGE PANS AWAY FROM THE GLASS DOORS BACK INTO THE HOME. WE LOOK DOWN A NARROW HALL TO THE KITCHEN. A BOY WITH A BIRTHDAY HAT IS SEATED ON THE KITCHEN COUNTER, POINTING FRANTICALLY OUT THE KITCHEN WINDOW. HE YELLS IN PORTUGUESE.**

 **THE CROWD OF CHILDREN AROUND THE GLASS DOORS START RUSHING INTO THE KITCHEN. THEY ARE JOINED BY A FEW ADULTS. THE IMAGE FOLLOWS THEM IN.**

 **THE KITCHEN WINDOW IS BLOCKED BY HEADS WHEN WE FIRST ARRIVE.**

"Move children! Vamonos!" Jack waves his hands at the screen like they might hear him.

 **THE IMAGE FINDS AN OPENING OVER THE SHOULDER OF THE BOY WITH THE BIRTHDAY HAT AND ANOTHER CHILD.**

 **WE ARE NOW LOOKING OUT THE KITCHEN WINDOW. WE SEE A NARROW ALLEY ONLY A FEW FEET WIDE CREATED BY A STONE WALL AND A SMALL GARAGE BUILDING. ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL IS DENSE FOLIAGE. THE WALL ENDS A FEW FEET AFTER THE GARAGE BUILDING.**

 **WE HEAR THE CHILD'S VOICE VERY CLOSE TO US SPEAKING IN PORTUGUESE. THE CAMERA PANS JUST A LITTLE AS THE FACE OF THE LITTLE BIRTHDAY BOY FILLS THE SCREEN. HE TALKS EXCITEDLY DIRECTLY AT US AND AT SOMEONE BEHIND THE IMAGE.**

 **THE BOY GESTURES TO THE GARAGE BUILDING. THE IMAGE SETTLES BACK ON THE WINDOW. WE STARE AT THE NARROW ALLEY. THE IMAGE ZOOMS A BIT. SEARCHES THE EDGE OF THE GARAGE BUILDING. THE IMAGE STARTS WIDENING OUT.**

 **AND THEN WE SEE IT.**

 **THE KITCHEN ERUPTS WITH CHILDREN'S SCREAMS AS A LARGE NON-HUMAN FIGURE MOVES FROM THE GARAGE BUILDING TO BEHIND THE WALL. IT'S OUT OF SIGHT IN LESS THAN A SECOND.**

Jack is frozen like a statue. His mouth is open a little.

 **THE VIDEO IMAGE ON THE NEWS, PAUSES. BEAT. WE SEE IT REWIND. WE SEE THE FIGURE ZIP BACK BEHIND THE GARAGE IN A FLICKER. THE VIDEO STOPS. PLAYS AGAIN.**

 **THE IMAGE ZOOMS A BIT. SEARCHES THE EDGE OF THE GARAGE BUILDING. STARTS TO WIDEN OUT. THE KITCHEN STARTS TO FILL WITH SCREAMS AS THE FIGURE APPEARS... THE IMAGE FREEZES.**

 **THE NEWS HAS PAUSED THE VIDEOTAPE ON THE EXACT MOMENT THE NON-HUMAN FIGURE IS VISIBLE. IT'S HALFWAY ACROSS THE ALLEY. IT'S MOTION HAS BLURRED IT, BUT YOU CAN TELL ITS SHAPE NOW.**

Jack Harkness stares stunned at the image of an upright humanoid creature.

 **THE STRIATIONS ALL OVER ITS BODY LOOK LIKE BRANCHES. EXACTLY LIKE BRANCHES. THEY MATCH THE BUSHES WHERE IT WAS HIDING, PERFECTLY.**

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… **..**

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The door swings open slowly. Ianto steps into John Hart's kitchen.

Cabinets are open. Dishes are broken. Chairs are turned over. The faucet is running full blast.

Ianto's eyes move across the room. The kitchen table is upside down and leaned up against the pantry door.

Ianto takes a few conservative steps to the middle of the kitchen.

He leans a little bit and listens.

Breaking glass, crunching as if underfoot.

Ianto can almost see the bottom of the door around the leaning table. Ianto stands up straight and thinks it over.

Ianto takes two small steps closer.

When he leans, he can now see the entire bottom of the pantry door.

A shadow.

"Hello." Ianto calls softly to the door.

The shadow pauses.

"The police are here... I am with them... I am a police officer." Ianto says in his deepest voice, "I just want to talk to you."

There is no movement from the pantry.

"We know all about the hoax. We already took some of your friends downtown in the paddy wagon." mouths to himself 'Paddy wagon'?

Ianto waits for a reply, but none comes.

"If you tell us your name and why you did it, we'll give you the same deal we gave the others. Don't throw away your life son."

Ianto bends down where he stands. He puts his head near the wood floor. He tries to look under the door. All he can see are the bottoms of a couple shelves in the corner of the pantry. He's at too severe an angle.

Ianto sits up. He's only four feet away from the pantry door. He looks around not knowing what to do. His eyes fall on a bunch of kitchen knives that have spilled from a drawer onto the floor.

He takes a butcher knife from the group and moves closer to the door. He reaches with the butcher knife underneath the slanted kitchen table. He uses the knife like a mirror to see under the door.

Ianto pulls the knife out. He sits there kneeling two feet from the door.

He takes a deep breath and starts to lower his head under the slanted table.

He stops halfway down. He loses his nerve and sits up. He rises to his feet as he places the butcher knife on the counter. Ianto starts walking across the kitchen. He gets to the door. Puts his hand on the doorknob.

He stays like that for a long time.

Ianto lets go of the doorknob - He turns and walks quickly across the kitchen - He picks up the butcher knife – He kneels down next to the pantry - He ducks his head under the slanted kitchen table - He places his cheek to the floor, only inches from the bottom of the door, and looks into the pantry.

There is broken glass and rice throughout the wooden floor of the pantry. Nothing else.

Ianto. Something's wrong.

Parts of it feel like a painting.

 **THE PAINTING MOVES.**

 **TWO BLACK EYES OPEN - SEEMINGLY SUSPENDED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM. THEY ARE SIDEWAYS. THEY LOOK AT IANTO.**

 **IANTO YELLS. HE JOLTS UP. HIS HEAD HITS THE SLANTED TABLE HARD.**

 **FOUR LONG FINGERS AND CLAWS, THE EXACT COLOR OF THE WOODEN FLOOR REACH OUT AND MISS HIS FACE BY A FRACTION OF AN INCH.**

 **IANTO REACTS. THE BUTCHER KNIFE COMES DOWN FAST AND HARD ON THE PROTRUDING WOOD COLORED FINGERS. SLAM!**

 **WE HEAR AN UNBEARABLY HIGH-PITCHED INHALE SOUND FROM INSIDE THE PANTRY.**


	10. Chapter 10

10

The station wagon knocks over the "John Hart" mailbox as it turns sharply onto the road.

Ianto picks up speed as he passes the wall of crops on his right.

Two black skid marks form on the road as the station wagon comes to a fast stop.

Ianto gets out of the car. He walks a few feet ahead of the station wagon. He bends down in the middle of the road.

A bird lays limp on the asphalt. Its head is crushed.

Ianto gazes at the still pile of feathers.

Ianto turns and looks straight up at the blue cloudless sky above him.

"Shit"

Ianto enters his front hall. He closes the door and locks it behind him. He turns and looks into the family room.

Owen and Toshiko and Jack are seated together on the sofa.

All three are wearing foil helmets.

"They're skin changes colour. That's why we couldn't see him that night." Jack says with wide eyes.

Ianto stares at his family huddled on the couch. Ianto takes in the news as he moves to the stairs. He takes a seat on the second to last step.

He sits obscured by the banister "Tell me something Owen. In that book of yours, did they happen to detail what would happen if they were hostile?"

"Yes. They would invade us using only ground tactics. Hand to hand combat. They wouldn't use their technology or fight an airborne battle, because they would know we would eventually use nuclear weapons and the planet would be useless to them."

"I'm sorry, what book is this?" Jack tears his eyes from the screen and blinks at the dishevelled Welshman on the stairs.

"Did they say what our chances would be if they did invade?" Ianto ignores the numpty.

"They said one of two things could happen. One, they fight and are defeated and leave to return again with full forces hundreds or even thousands of years later."

"What's two?"

"They win." Owen shrugs.

The words hang in the air. Ianto sits quietly on the second step of the stairs.

"What do you think about the idea that they don't like places near water, and we might be safe from them near a lake or something?" Ianot suggests and Owen snorts.

"Sounds made up."

"We can choose to believe it and pack up and leave." Ianto informs his family "Or we can stay here. Board up this house. Hide inside our home and wait it out. Either way, at least we'll be together. All those in favour of the lake, raise your hand."

No one raises their hand.

"All those in favour of home, raise your hand."

All four put their hands in the air. Beat. They lower them and sit in silence.

"How do we know boards will do anything?" Jack finally asks.

Ianto pauses for a moment then softy speaks "Because, they seem to have trouble with pantry doors."

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….

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..

Ianto is inside the house, closing the window shutters in one room after another.

There is a stack of wooden boards on the porch.

Janet is tied in the barn. She is not pacing. She is not barking. She sits staring right at the corn. She is shivering.

Jack is carry a huge pile of his clothes and things down the stairs. He's moving into the main house.

Jack walks across the yard. His eyes look around carefully as he moves.

Part of the pile in his arms falls to the grass as he crosses the lawn. He stops walking and starts to gather up the fallen things. He picks up a couple shirts and two baseballs encased in glass cases.

The glass encasing one of the souvenir baseballs, has cracked. He takes the ball out. Stares at it.

We watch from the crops as Jack puts down his pile of clothes and things on the grass. He looks around and finds what he's looking for. A rake.

Jack unscrews the fork on the rake from the wooden handle.

With the wooden stick in one hand and the souvenir baseball in the other, he turns to face the crops.

Jack looks around cautiously again, before getting into a batter's stance. His left leg digs into the grass in front of him. His weight is mostly on his back leg. He looks out into the distance high over the crops. He throws the baseball up in the air...

Jack grabs the wooden handle. Jack's shoulders move with blinding speed. The wooden rake handle slices the air. And misses the ball.

The ball drops at Jack's feet.

Jack picks up the ball and tries again. This time his shoulders move even faster. The wooden stick actually makes a noise as it cuts the air.

The ball drops at Jack's feet.

Jack snatches the ball up and tries a third time. This time he yells as he swings. He rips the air with the wooden stick so fast it blurs to the eye.

The baseball drops at his feet. Strike three.

Jack stands still in the yard. He's breathing a little heavy as he stares down at the ball.

He gently picks it up. He walks back to his pile of things and then suddenly turns. He throws the ball in the air as he does. His left leg goes out. His weight goes to his right leg as he turns his shoulders with astonishing speed and power...

CRACK

The ball rockets into the air. We watch it fly overhead...sail high over the crops... it becomes a tiny dot in the sky.

After a long beat of silence it comes back to earth. It lands in the street and bounces twenty feet into the air. It cleared at least four or five hundred feet of crops. Maybe more.

Jack is still standing in the backyard. He drops the wooden stick to the grass and moves for his things. He piles them in his arms. When his arms are full, he starts for the porch.

He will be close to Ianto and the children tonight, he will hold them safe in his arms and protect his family. Whatever the cost.

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… **..**

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Owen and Toshiko are seated on the kitchen chair in the closet.

"Come quick!" Owen calls to his uncles and they appear almost at the same time in the doorway to the closet. Ianto and Jack are holding hammers.

All four stare at the television.

 **ON THE SCREEN IS A STREET FILLED WITH PEOPLE RUNNING WITH SUITCASES AND BAGS. SOME PEOPLE ARE GETTING TRAMPLED. OTHERS ARE STANDING ON THE STREET CORNER AND YELLING. THERE IS PANIC IN THE AIR.**

 _ **Tel Aviv joins Nairobi, Lagos and Jerusalem as the latest to confirm the appearance of lights. There are lights in the skies over an estimated two hundred and seventy four cities. That total could be as high as four hundred within the hour.**_

 **THE IMAGE ON THE TELEVISION SCREEN CHANGES TO A NIGHT TIME VIEW OF THE TEL AVIV CITY LINE. THERE ARE FOURTEEN LIGHTS IN TWO "V" FORMATIONS OVER THE CITY.**

"They decided to show themselves." Ianto whispers, grabbing Jack's hand and Jack looks down with surprise, pulling the clasped hands to his other one.

"They think these look like stages immediately preceding an attack manoeuvre." Owen is enthralled.

"It's like War of the Worlds." Jack whispers as he feels Ianto shiver against him and he slides an arm around him in a gentle hug, then feels the shaking stop as Ianto draws strength from him.

"They think it might happen all at once." Owen replies, his eyes wide.

The words silence everyone.

The image goes back to a quiet TV anchor.

 **He takes a second before starting up again.**

 **Hundreds of thousands have flocked to synagogues, churches and temples.**

 **The television shows hundreds of Israelis in a temple and in the streets praying.**

Ianto watches quietly as the masses pray side by side.

 _ **Ground forces are being assembled in countries throughout the globe...**_

"I'm going to get back to the windows." Ianto declares, more alarmed than afraid now and he hesitates, looking back at Jack who nods, then releases the warm man.

Toshiko watches as Ianto leaves the doorway of the closet. She turns back to the television.

Jack leans down between his niece and nephew and whispers, "You guys okay?"

They don't answer. They watch the soldiers loading up onto trucks on the television.

"Some guy had a sign that said it was the end of the world." Owen says as he finally looks at Jack's face "Nothing really bad is going to happen, is it Uncle Jack?"

"Don't worry." Jack said as reassuringly as he can.

Owen glances at Toshiko and then back to his uncle.

"You sure right?" Owen mutters a frown forming

Jack gazes at the two questioning faces. He looks back at the empty closet doorway where Ianto stood moments ago giving and receiving affection. He turns back to the children.

"You know about signs Owen? Not like the ones people write on. It's like if you poured a glass of milk and you dropped the glass by mistake and broke it before you could drink it. Then you looked at the milk carton and saw that the milk was spoiled. They're things that happen by chance or luck, but make you feel that someone's watching out for you."

The children think it over.

"I once had a bad dream and I couldn't wake up. I kicked at the table next to my bed and something fell on me and I woke up. It was a picture of mom. She was smiling. It made me feel safe... You mean like that?" Owen finally asks.

"Yeah, like that." Jack smiles softly "I believe in signs Owen. I think there's someone watching out for us. I got to believe she's going to make sure we're all right in the end."

Jack smiles as he steps out of the closet and closes the door half-way.

He stands in the hall by himself. He takes a couple deep breaths as everything hits him. He sees his brother laughing at his wedding, Rhiannon in his arms as the last of the afternoon sun hits the photo on the wall.

He looks at the hammer in his hand.

Time to go swing it at something.


	11. Chapter 11

11

Owen turns off the television.

He and Toshiko sit quietly in the closet under the stairs.

Ianto sits in a chair by the windows. He has a board on his lap. He has a hammer in his hands. Ianto drowns in his thoughts as the skies darken behind him.

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Ianto, Toshiko and Owen are seated in the upstairs hallway. There's a couple boards left leaning against the walls.

Jack comes out of the children's room with his tools. "Too many windows in the bedrooms. We don't have enough boards."

Jack stands and leans against the wall.

"We'll have to board up the bedroom doors." Ianto suggests and Jack considers.

"Where are we going to sleep?" Owen demands as he looks towards his room, his things.

"The family room." Ianto decides. Everyone sits quietly for a moment.

"What about Janet?" Owen presents the next problem, his eyes boring into Ianto.

"We'll keep her in the garage, after dinner." Ianto sounds tired, beat and he leans against Jack for reassurance.

"I'll make sandwiches." Jack says firmly as he pulls Ianto under his arm in a gentle hug.

"I want spaghetti?" Toshiko frowns

"We should eat fast Tosh." Owen frowns, his baby sister is so demanding in his eyes when the menfolk are on a crisis.

"Spaghetti sounds great." Ianto says softly, his eyes closed as he lets his head fall to Jack's shoulder for a moment.

Jack glances at Ianto.

"What do you want, Owen?" Ianto says after a moment or two.

Owen wonders as the catch "Anything?"

Ianto nods "yes."

"French toast... and mashed potatoes." Owen grins.

"Now we're talking." Ianto huffs, "How about you Jack?"

Ianto turns and looks at Jack. They stare at each other quietly. They have a conversation without words.

"Chicken Teriyaki."

"Good choice... I'm going to have a cheeseburger with bacon." Ianto sighs dreamily, "Extra bacon."

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…

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..

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The windows in the kitchen are boarded up, as is the back door.

The sink is piled with pots and pans. It seems like every utensil and dish in the kitchen was used.

One side of the dining room is lined with windows that have been boarded up.

The table is set. Mash potatoes, spaghetti, French toast, chicken teriyaki and bacon cheeseburgers are all displayed elegantly on serving dishes.

The family sits around the table. Beat. The scene is sombre. No one is moving.

"What's the matter with everyone?" Ianto looks around the table "Eat."

No one says anything. No one eats.

"I'm scared." Owen whispers.

"Me too." Toshiko whimpers with wide eyes.

"I don't want to hear anymore talk like that. And I don't want to see anymore faces like the ones I'm looking at. We are going to enjoy this meal. Nothing can stop us from enjoying this meal! Enjoy!" Ianto seems to be begging even as he pulls himself upright more, his chin jutting out as he tries to be strong. Toshiko sits next to her three glasses of water and begins to cry."Stop crying princess."

Owen's face is hard, but tears start to fall anyway. Ianto watches as both children cry at the table.

"Fine, if you all don't want to eat, then I'm going to have some of everything." Ianto warns with fake playfulness.

Ianto takes big scoops of every dish and piles it on his plate. He digs his fork into the pile and starts to shove it in his mouth. He swallows.

"This tastes so great."

Toshiko, Owen and Jack watch in stunned silence as Ianto stuffs more in his mouth. He chews and chews and swallows hard. He digs his fork into the pile again.

Ianto starts crying as he eats. He keeps taking more bites. More tears fall.

Owen gets up from his seat. He goes to Ianto's chair. He leans against his Uncle's arm and cries with him. Ianto's fork stops moving. He watches as Toshiko moves from her seat to his other side. She holds her Uncle's arm and cries.

Ianto pulls them both up onto the chair with him and hugs them tight. Jack leans forward and comes to the pile on Ianto's chair. Jack buries his head in Ianto's shoulder. The family huddles together at one end of the table.

The monitor suddenly bursts into life at the other end of the table.

Everyone slowly turns and looks over to Owen's place setting where the baby monitor sits on the table.

Jack sits up. Ianto puts down the children from his lap. He gets up from his seat and moves around the table and out of the dining room. He moves through the family room and into the hall.

Ianto opens the closet door and looks in at the television.

He turns it ON.

 **THE EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYMBOL IS ON THE SCREEN. A LOW TONE EMITS FROM THE TV.**

Ianto changes stations.

 **THE SYMBOL AND TONE APPEAR ON EVERY CHANNEL. THE MONOTONE** **SOUND FILLS THE CLOSET.**

Ianto steps out into the hall. Jack and the two children are standing there waiting. Ianto looks at them.

"It's happening." He whispers with open dread.

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….

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Jack pounds furiously with his hammer as he nails boards to the children's bedroom door. The master bedroom door is open with a board leaning next to it. Ianto is inside his bedroom

Ianto walks to the window next to his bed. It's the same one we've looked out twice before.

Ianto looks out onto his backyard. The security lights are on and the yard in flooded with light. There is a light breeze. Nothing seems wrong.

Ianto's eyes stay locked on the crops which go on and on into darkness. He moves closer to the glass. Watches the top of the corn stalks swaying slightly with the wind.

 **SOMETHING MOVES IN THE DARKNESS.**

Ianto's eyes moves to where the corn crops fade into black forty feet away. Ianto goes very still.

 **LINES EMERGE IN THE CROPS; THE KIND OF LINES MADE BY SOMEONE TRAMPLING THROUGH A FIELD. WE CAN'T SEE WHO'S MAKING THEM. ALL WE SEE ARE THE COUNTLESS LINES BEING FORMED. THE LINES MOVE FROM THE DARKNESS TOWARDS THE HOUSE. IANTO WATCHES THEM CLOSE IN ON HIS BACKYARD. THIRTY FEET... TWENTY FEET... TEN...**

Ianto backs away from the window towards the middle of his bedroom.

"Ianto hurry." Jack pants from the hallway.

Ianto turns to see Jack standing with the last board in the hall. Ianto moves out into the hall and shuts the bedroom door behind him.

Jack immediately puts the wooden board up and starts hammering nails into the frame. Ianto picks up his hammer and quietly begins to hammer nails into the wood.

Ianto glances to his right as he works. Toshiko and Owen are standing together at the top of the stairs. Toshiko holds Owen's hand.

Ianto keeps hammering as he speaks.

"Did I ever tell you what everyone said when you were born, Toshiko?"

Toshiko nods "no" lightly.

"You came out of your real momma and you didn't even cry. They brought you out of the room from the surrogate who gave you to us and you just opened your eyes and looked around at everybody. Your eyes were so big and gorgeous, the ladies in the room gasped."

Ianto stops hammering. Jack keeps going.

"They literally gasped." Ianto gasps like them "Then they go, "She's like an angel." Rhia and Gray…your new mama and papa said, "We've never seen a baby so beautiful."

Ianto smiles to himself as he remembers the moment. Jack finishes hammering.

Ianto goes over and picks up Toshiko. "And you know what else happened?"

Toshiko nods, "no."

"When they put you on the table to clean you up, you looked at me and smiled. They say babies that young can't smile... You smiled." Ianto sighed happily, Ianto looks at his niece quietly. He brushes the hair out of her face as Jack moves to Owen and picks him up.

All four turn and look at the three boarded up bedroom doors.

"Let's go down now."


	12. Chapter 12

12

Ianto puts Toshiko down in the hallway. She stands close to him. Jack puts down Owen. The four of them stand quietly in a tight group.

There is the sound of barking.

"They found Janet." Owen stiffens as they listen to the barking becoming frantic, then angry. Then …..stops.

 **THE LOW EMERGENCY TONE FROM THE CLOSET TV FILLS THE SILENCE.**

"Should we turn off the lights?" Jack whispers, puling everyone to him without thinking.

"They already know we're here." Ianto sighs.

 **THE FIRST SOUNDS OF MOVEMENT ARE HEARD OUTSIDE. CREAKS OF WOOD FROM THE FRONT PORCH CAN BE HEARD.**

 **THERE IS SOUNDS OF MOVEMENT FROM BEHIND THE LOCKED BACK DOOR.**

 **SOUNDS OF MOVEMENT AGAINST THE SIDE OF THE HOUSE. SOUNDS FROM ALL DIRECTIONS.**

 **THERE IS SCRATCHING NOISES AGAINST THE FRONT DOOR. METAL NOISES AS THE HANDLE IS TRIED.**

"Uncle …" Owen whimpers with wide eyes.

 **THE DOOR CREAKS AS PRESSURE IS PLACED AGAINST IT.**

"Do you know what happened when you were born Owen?" Ianto is still calm, still strong for his family as Jack's arm snakes around his waist.

Owen looks at his Uncle, unable to speak.

"You came out and your momma kept bleeding. The doctors rushed you out of the room before I could even see you." Ianto explains, "After all that hard work she was so tired, so tired that she couldn't do any more babies, that's why Toshiko came from another mama."

 **THERE ARE THUDS ABOVE THEM.**

All four look up.

"They're on the roof." Jack whispers.

"While they were trying to fix her up, all she kept asking about was you." Ianto continues to speak, "Your Papa was torn between staying with her or going to you."

 **THEY LISTEN AS THE THUDS INCREASE IN NUMBER.**

 **THE FIRST SOUND OF SHATTERING GLASS IS HEARD FROM UPSTAIRS.**

Jack looks up the stairs at the boarded bedroom doors.

"They're in the house." Jack is now rising from the crouch.

Ianto takes Owen's hand.

"We wanted your momma to see you first. She had dreamed about you her whole life." Ianto rubs the little hand in his distractedly as his eyes never leave his face, "They waited till she felt better, then they brought you in. They placed you right in her arms. And she looked at you. And you looked at her. You just stared at each other for the longest time and then she said real soft, "Hello Owen, I'm you momma, you look just like I dreamed."

Ianto smiles down at his nephew who smiles gently back.

 **SCRATCHING NOISES BEGIN TO COME FROM UPSTAIRS.**

The group of four turns and watches the top of the stairs.

Jack's eyes moves quietly above the bedroom doors, to the ceiling of the upstairs hallway. He stares at a rectangle in the ceiling. A tiny rope hangs from the rectangle.

"The attic door." Jack sprints up the stairs.

Owen and Toshiko watch as Ianto follows after Jack.

Ianto and Jack stare up at the ceiling. There is movement right above them. Dust falls from a ceiling light right next to them.

The rope hanging from the attic trapdoor hangs between them. They watch as it begins to twitch and sway.

The springs in the trap door begins to creak. The door starts to fall open.

Jack and Ianto raise their arms above their head and reach up. The door opens a few inches. Jack is taller. The door presses against his fingers first. It gives a few more inches before Jack stops it.

Ianto's finger are barely touching it. Jack's face turns red with strain as something pushes down on the door.

"This is a very temporary solution." Jack huffs. Ianto brings his arms down. He sees his children watching from the bottom of the stairs. Ianto looks around where he is. There is a very small table with photos against a wall. A laundry closet and three boarded up bedroom doors...nothing else. Ianto turns to Jack.

"How temporary?"

Jack's face is a deep crimson. "Twenty-two seconds?"

Ianto looks around again... the same things... the same table... the same closet... Ianto stops and stares at the closet. It has a wooden folding door that opens and closed on a guide rail. The wooden folding door is very tall. Its top is one foot from the ceiling.

Ianto goes to the closet and grabs the door. He starts rocking it hard. Pulling it out... It starts to come out of its guide rail... Ianto leans back with all his weight...The thin wooden door rips out of place. One end is still attached at the hinge. Ianto pulls it straight. It reaches into the middle of the landing. It stands right next to Jack. Right under the attic trapdoor. Its top is only a few inches lower than Jack's reach.

"Let go." Ianto whispers.

Jack hesitates and then lowers the attic trapdoor. It connects with the top of the closet door and stops. The trapdoor is now open almost a foot... We can now see part of the bottom step of the wooden pull out stairs that lead to the attic.

Jack and Ianto step away as the closet folding door holds the weight of the attic door.

After a moment, the spring on the attic trapdoor recoils as the pressure is let up. The trapdoor closes.

It opens with force, slamming the top of the standing closet door with a thud.

The attic trapdoor closes again. Opens again with force.

 **THUD.**

The closet folding door begins to pull away from the hinges keeping it upright.

Ianto moves down the stairs. Jack follows him.

Owen and Toshiko are frozen watching a set of long fingers reach under the front door.

 **THE COLOR OF THE FINGERS CHANGES – TO** **THE EXACT COLOR AND TEXTURE OF THE YELLOW CRACKED PAINT ON THE DOOR.**

 **THUD.**

 **THE TRAPDOOR SLAMS THE TOP OF THE FOLDING DOOR UPSTAIRS.**

Ianto and Jack arrive in the front hall. Ianto takes Owen and Toshiko by the hand and leads them quickly down the hall. Jack backs away as he watches the top of the stairs.

 **ANOTHER THUD ECHOES THROUGH THE HOUSE.**

The swinging door swings open and closed behind Jack as he enters the kitchen.

Ianto has moved the chairs away from the kitchen table and waits by it. Jack goes over and the two of them push the table against the swinging door.

They take the kitchen chairs and pile a couple on top, and jam the rest underneath the table.

Ianto leans against the kitchen counter. Jack stares at the pile of furniture.

"This is going to do nothing." Jack frowns and Ianto nods.

"We have to go in the basement." Ianto points to a set of narrow stairs that lead to a darkened door at the bottom.

"There's no way out of there." Jack whispers.

Ianto looks at the faces of his frightened children. "Did I ever tell you, I dislocated your mama's arm?"

"Should we make a run for it out the back?" Jack asks as he glances at the car keys hanging on the hook by the door. Would they make it?

"They're right behind the door." Ianto relies calmly.

Jack looks at the boarded up back door. Ianto turns to Toshiko and Owen who stand against the wall.

"She was only a year and half old."

"What are you doing?" Jack now focuses on Ianto. Has he lost his freaking mind?

"She was trying to eat a second chocolate bar. Your grandma said, "No." She tried to take a bite, so I grabbed it." The sound of breaking wood upstairs. Jack turns and stares at the barricaded entrance to the kitchen. Ianto ignores it, "I must have pulled her arm at an awkward angle. Her elbow popped right out of the socket."

 **THE LAST THUD COMES WITH A SOUND OF WOOD SPLINTERING. THE CLOSET FOLDING DOOR CRASHES TO THE GROUND IN THE UPSTAIRS HALL.**

 **WE HEAR CREAKS AS THE ATTIC TRAPDOOR OPENS.**

"She didn't scream or anything. Her arm just flopped to her side and she got real still."

Jack is backing up slowly with them all in his arms, "They're coming"

Ianto moves towards the basement stairs.

"I held her in my lap in the back seat as we drove to the hospital. I couldn't stop crying... We need to go into the basement now." Ianto gestures for the kids to come to the stairs. Owen and Toshiko move to their Uncle slowly. "You know what your mama did right after the doctor put her arm back in place? She jumped off the table and gave me a hug. She had already forgotten that I was the one who hurt her."

Ianto ushers the two children down the stairs. He waits for Jack. Jack turns from the kitchen door and walks toward him. Jack stops and looks down the stairs. "We won't be able to get out of there."

Ianto sighs softly "I wish I could tell her I'm sorry I hurt her arm."

Jack's eyes fill with water. He doesn't look up. "I know."

Jack walks down the stairs. Ianto waits at the top. He watches the kitchen door with the table and chairs against it.

 **THERE IS MOVEMENT OUTSIDE IN THE HALL.**

The door starts to force its way open.

 **THE TABLE AND CHAIRS** **BEGIN TO SCRAPE ACROSS THE KITCHEN FLOOR LIKE NAILS AGAINST A CHALK BOARD.**

 **WE HEAR VOICE-LIKE SOUNDS ENTER THE KITCHEN. SOUNDS MADE FROM INHALES, NOT EXHALES.**

Ianto comes down the last few steps and enters the basement.

"We forgot our foil helmets!" Owen gasps as his hands fly to his head, looking up at Jack with horror.

Ianto closes the door behind him. It has no lock. "We need something to wedge against the doorknob."

The basement is lined with metal shelves. The shelves are cluttered with all sorts of canned goods, extension cords, cleaning supplies, decorations, outdoor tools. Jack rummages through the shelves frantically.

"They'll read our minds!" Owen cries as he looked around frantically.

"You're scaring your sister." Ianto warns.

"I'm already scared." A tiny voice replies, her eyes as wide as saucers.

Ianto puts his ear to the door and listens. "Jack …"

"I'm looking!" Jack moves to another set of shelves. He starts knocking things to the ground.

Owen whispers to himself "They'll know our secret thoughts."

There is something outside the door. The doorknob turns. Ianto grabs it with both hands. The door begins to push open.

"Jack!"

"Got it!" Jack reaches between two stacks of shelves and pulls out a pick for digging in the ground. He holds it up in the air. It has a three-foot wooden handle.

Jack turns and rushes in Ianto's direction.

A single light bulb hangs from a wire in the ceiling. It is the only light in the room. Jack whacks the bulb with the end of the wooden handle as he crosses the room.

 **THE BULB SHATTERS. THE BASEMENT IS INSTANTLY BLACK.**

"Uncle!" Toshiko whimpers.


	13. Chapter 13

13

 **WE HEAR THE SOUNDS OF SUDDEN COMMOTION, VOICES. STRUGGLING AT THE DOOR. STEPS ON BROKEN GLASS.**

 **A BEAM OF A FLASHLIGHT COMES ON.**

 **IT ILLUMINATES OWEN STANDING NEXT TO A RACK OF METAL SHELVES. HE TURNS THE FLASHLIGHT IN HIS TINY HANDS.**

 **THE NARROW BEAM MOVES ACROSS THE DARKNESS. IT FINDS JACK AND IANTO LEANING UP AGAINST THE BASEMENT DOOR.**

 **OWEN MOVES THE BEAM DOWN TO THE PICK, WHICH IS WEDGED BETWEEN THE DOORKNOB AND THE GROUND. THE PICK WAVERS A LITTLE WITH EACH PUSH FROM THE OTHER SIDE, BUT HOLDS.**

 **THE SCRATCHING AND MOVEMENT OUTSIDE THE DOOR BEGINS TO LESSEN.**

"Where's Tosh?" Ianto suddenly asks.

 **THE BEAM SEARCHES IN THE DARKNESS. THROUGH THE BOXES, BETWEEN THE SHELVES... IT SETTLES ON A SMALL FOOT HIDING BEHIND A COUPLE TWENTY-FIVE POUND BAGS OF DOG FOOD. TOSHIKO'S HEAD SLOWLY APPEARS. SHE SQUINTS AS SHE LOOKS IN THE LIGHT.**

"I'm okay."

 **ANOTHER BEAM COMES ON. IT REVEALS JACK AT THE SHELVES WITH A SECOND FLASHLIGHT. HE LOOKS OVER THE CONTENTS OF THE SHELVES NEAR HIM.**

 **HIS BEAM OF LIGHT FALLS ON A RADIO.**

He turns the knob to "on." The radio lights up, but no sound emerges for it's speakers. Jack turns the channel knob and checks all the stations. No sound. No signal.

"What's happening out there?" Jack mutters.

"I can't even imagine." Ianto replies, stepping closer and Jack has an urge to hold him.

 **THEY ALL LISTEN TO THE DEAD AIR HUM FROM THE RADIO SPEAKERS.**

"I hope they're doing better than we are. We don't even have helmets." Owen grumps angrily.

 **THERE IS A LOUD BANG.**

 **BOTH FLASHLIGHT BEAMS CRISSCROSS OVER THE BASEMENT AND COME TO A STOP ON THE DOOR.**

 **ANOTHER BANG. THE DOOR VIBRATES. THE PICK WITH THE WOODEN HANDLE HOLDS IN PLACE.**

 **BANG.**

Ianto looks at the door and then turns and faces the lights. "They're just making noises. They're not trying to get in…Why are they doing that?"

Ianto looks at Jack's corner of the darkness.

"They want our attention on the door?" Jack surmises.

BANG.

A beat of silence.

"They're distracting us?" Ianto leans back to consider.

"From what?" Jack looks around with confusion.

"The book says they're probably very good problem solvers." Owen informed them in his usual calm voice.

"What book!" Jack demands

"They'll find a way in." Owen says back just as strongly.

"Owen, give me your flashlight." Ianto demands and Owen puts the flashlight on the floor, rolling it to his Uncle.

Ianto picks it up. "Is there an air vent in here?"

Jack moves next to Ianto.

 **ANOTHER BANG FROM THE DOOR.**

They aim their flashlights about the room. The men move in opposite directions.

 **IANTO MOVES HIS BEAM UP AND DOWN CHECKING THE WALLS AND THE CEILING AS HE MOVES.**

 **JACK MOVES BETWEEN SHELVES, ONE AT A TIME. HIS FLASHLIGHT PEERS BEHIND THE STACKS OF CANNED GOODS.**

 **A BANG ECHOES THROUGH THE BASEMENT DOOR.**

Jack and Ianto are at opposite ends of the room now.

"I can feel air." Ianto whispers.

"Me too." Jack says with wonder.

 **THE TWO BEAMS OF LIGHT START MOVING TOWARDS EACH OTHER.**

"It's getting stronger." Ianto warns.

"I'm close." Jack agrees.

 **BANG.**

 **THE BEAMS MOVE UP AND DOWN OVER THE FINAL WALL. IANTO AND JACK MOVE CLOSER AND CLOSER... THE TWO BEAMS FINALLY COME TO A STOP IN THE SAME PLACE... THEY SHINE DOWN ON OWEN.**

 **HE SITS ON THE GROUND AGAINST THE WALL. HE STARES UP AT THE TWO LIGHTS.**

"What?"

 **IN THE BEAM OF LIGHTS YOU CAN SEE HIS HAIR MOVING GENTLY FROM A BREEZE.**

 **IANTO AND JACK TURN THEIR LIGHTS STRAIGHT INTO THE AIR VENT HE'S LEANING AGAINST.**

 **EYES ARE REVEALED IN THE DARKNESS OF THE VENT. A NARROW SET OF METALLIC COLORED FINGERS SHOOT OUT BETWEEN THE HOLES IN THE VENT GRILL AND GRAB OWEN.**

 **OWEN SCREAMS. THE FLASHLIGHTS DROP TO THE GROUND. THERE'S A DESPERATE SCRAMBLE. FEET MOVE THROUGH THE BEAMS OF LIGHT.**

 **WE CAN'T SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING.**

"Hold the vent!" Jack voice roars with anger.

 **SOMEONE PICKS UP A FLASHLIGHT. WE SEE GLIMPSES OF STRAINING FACES. OWEN SCREAMING.**

"Pull him!" Ianto screams, his fear raw.

 **THE FLASHLIGHT IS DROPPED AND PICKED UP AGAIN. WE SEE IT IS TOSHIKO WHO IS HOLDING THE LIGHT.**

 **TOSHIKO TURNS THE LIGHT AT THE VENT. JACK IS THE ONLY ONE THERE. HE PRESSES ONE OF THE TWENTY-FIVE POUND BAGS OF DOG FOOD AGAINST THE METAL GRILL. HE DRAGS THE SECOND BAG OVER WITH HIS FOOT AND SLAMS IT AGAINST THE FIRST BAG. HE QUICKLY MOVES OUT OF THE LIGHT.**

 **TOSHIKO FOLLOWS HIM WITH THE BEAM. SHE FINDS HIM DRAGGING AN ENORMOUS BAG OF FLOUR OVER TO THE VENT. HE HEAVES IT ON TOP OF THE PILE. HE LEAVES THE LIGHT AGAIN. RETURNS WITH ANOTHER GIANT BAG OF FLOUR. GRUNTS AS HE THROWS IT ON TOP OF, THE REST.**

 **JACK FALLS TO THE GROUND EXHAUSTED. THE PILE OF DOG FOOD AND FLOUR COMPLETELY OBSCURE THE VENT. A CAN OF SOUP ROLLS ON THE GROUND NEAR JACK. HE SLOWLY PICKS IT UP AND PUTS AN ADDITIONAL EIGHT OUNCES ON THE PILE.**

Jack slowly catches his breath. He reaches over to his side and grabs the remaining flashlight.

 **HE FINDS THE BOY IN IANTO'S LAP. OWEN IS SEATED WITH HIS BACK AGAINST IANTO'S CHEST. USING HIM AS A CHAIR. OWEN'S FACE IS PALE. HE IS TAKING VERY LONG SLOW HEAVES. IT SOUNDS LIKE THE AIR IS GOING THROUGH A STRAW. HE'S SUFFOCATING.**

 **IANTO LOOKS UP INTO THE LIGHT.**

"We don't have his medicine." Ianto whispers and Jack looks at his nephew turning gray.

Ianto pulls Owen closer to his body and talks into the child's ear. "Don't be scared Owen. We'll slow it down together. Feel my chest. Feel it going in and out. Breathe like me. Breathe like me."

Owen's throat is closing - his face is filled with strain and panic.

"He can't breathe." Toshiko moves to Jack and curls up with him as they watch.

Ianto closes his eyes. He opens his eyes and talks into Owen's ear. "Stay with me. Stay with me. I know it hurts. Be strong baby...It'll pass."

Ianto closes his eyes - talks to the darkness. "Don't do this to me again. Not again."

Jack stares at his brother-in-law's desperate face.

Ianto's eyes open as Owen's tiny fingers press down on Ianto's hand. The fingers squeeze with all the strength they have.

Ianto looks to Jack helplessly. Jack's eyes fill up with water.

Ianto's eyes close. "I hate you. I hate you..."

Ianto's eyes open as he leans in close to Owen's ear. "The fear is feeding it... Don't be afraid of what's happening...Believe it's going to pass...Believe it... Just wait... Don't be afraid... The air is coming...Believe... We don't have to be afraid... It's about to pass... Here it comes... Don't be afraid... Here comes the air..."

 **A THIN STREAM OF SOUND EMITS FROM OWEN'S THROAT. LIKE THE SOUND OF AIR LEAKING FROM A BALLOON.**

"There we go Cariad... We don't have to be scared at all... We know it'll pass. We believe it... Don't be afraid Owen."

Owen's fingers relax a little on Ianto's hand.

 **THE LEAKING BALLOON SOUND TURNS BACK INTO THE SOUND OF AIR THROUGH A STRAW.**

Jack watches as Ianto's face stays pressed up against Owen's. "Feel my chest... Breathe with me. Together... The air is going in our lungs... Together... We're the same. We're the same."

Jack watches as Owen's chest starts to move in sync with Ianto's.

 **THE SOUND OF THE STRAW FADES AS OWEN'S BREATHING TURNS INTO LABORED BREATHS.**

Ianto's eyes close. He starts crying.

He speaks to no one. "I hate you."

Owen's fingers relax on Ianto's hand. Jack watches as they breathe together. Jack and Toshiko hold each other tight.

 **THE FLASHLIGHT FLICKERS ON IANTO AND OWEN'S EXHAUSTED FACES. THEY BOTH STARE OUT INTO THE DARKNESS OF THE BASEMENT. TEARS DRYING ON THEIR CHEEKS. THEY'RE BOTH LOST IN THEIR THOUGHTS.**

"I should save the flashlights." Jack finally speaks, Ianto nods without looking over.

 **JACK PRESSES THE BUTTON ON HIS FLASHLIGHT. THE BEAM OF LIGHT ILLUMINATING IANTO AND OWEN GOES OUT. THEY DISAPPEAR INTO SHADOWS.**

Jack looks down to Toshiko, who has the second flashlight in her hand.

Jack nods to her. She reaches down and presses the button.

 **THE BASEMENT IS ENGULFED BY BLACK.**


	14. Chapter 14

14

 _... Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have also confirmed._

Ianto opens his eyes from sleep.

He squints up at the light on the basement.

Jack steps into his vision. "I found a pack of light bulbs."

Jack walks back to the radio on the metal shelf.

 _... Parts of China and Northern Korea are among the few remaining to verify withdrawals._

"They're broadcasting..." Ianto says with surprise.

"It came on about two hours ago. Woke me up." Jack grins "We won Ianto."

Jack waits for him to say something. Beat.

"It went on all night. Everywhere. It was completely a ground battle. Mostly hand to hand. You can't see them unless you're up close. A lot of people died. Some from combat. But most from poison gas inhalation. They secrete it." Jack filing the silence.

"How many died?" Ianto asks softly as he reaches for Jack's hand.

"They think over a hundred thousand. They're just estimates." Jack sighs, then brightens again ,"But we held strong."

"How do they know it's over?"

"A mass evacuation by them started about eight o'clock this morning. It's eleven now. They're leaving." Jack's smile fades and he slid to sit, pulling Ianto against him. "You didn't think we'd make it."

"No."

"Listen, there's things I can take and a couple things I can't and one of them I can't take, is when someone who means a great deal to me…a great deal …who is everything I need, starts losing faith in things. I saw your eyes last night." Jacks voice breaks as he looks Ianto in the eye, truthful "I don't want to ever see your eyes like that again, okay? I'm serious."

Jack's face is hard. He looks shaken. Ianto stares at the conviction in his expression then he leans in and their lips touch, brush then hold. Ianto sits back as Jack blinks "Okay."

THERE'S A WHEEZING SOUND FROM THE CORNER OF THE ROOM.

Ianto and Jack turn to look at Owen - laying down on Jack's folded sweater. Owen's breathing is strained. He still looks grey.

"He's been like that for awhile. We need to get him some medicine." Jack moves closer to Ianto.

"Have they said anything about our area?" Ianto asks.

"Philadelphia and its outlying counties are cleared, but who knows for sure?" Jack shrugs, aware that Ianto is still hazy with some of the local place names, his move from Wales a real shock to the system. Despite his many visits, actually living here is another thing.

Ianto looks at Owen lying limp on the ground. Ianto turns to Jack and whispers "He's not strong enough to fight off another attack."

Jack whispers back "I know. We need to be sure, before we open that door Ianto."

The two men stand under the single dangling light bulb.

Ianto quietly turns and looks at Owen. He moves across the room towards him.

Jack watches as Ianto kneels down and reaches to Owen's side. Ianto unclips the baby monitor from his son's belt.

Ianto walks back to Jack. He holds it out between them.

He turns it ON.

 **A SLIGHT STATIC IS HEARD. IANTO TURNS THE VOLUME ALL THE WAY UP. THE STATIC GETS A LITTLE LOUDER, BUT DOESN'T CHANGE. THERE ARE NO NOISES, NO SPIKES, NO VOICES... JUST EMPTY** **ELECTRICAL STATIC.**

Ianto makes eye contact with Jack.

"That's good enough for me." Jack whispers.

Ianto nods, "Me too."

The basement door cracks open a few inches.

Jack opens it all the way.

 **DUST FLOATS UP IN THE DAYLIGHT THAT SPILLS DOWN THE STAIRS.**

Jack moves up the stairs by himself. He reaches the top and looks around. Turns back down to the faces at the bottom. Gives them the thumbs up.

Ianto leads Toshiko up the stairs. He carries a limp Owen in his arms.

The dust seems to hang in the air, the light filtering through and the back door is swinging wide open.

Ianto and Toshiko and Owen watch as Jack walks over the toppled chairs to get to the cabinets. "Get the syringe as well. We might need to give him an epinephrine shot."

Jack nods as he begins to search the piles of things that have fallen from the cabinets.

Ianto gently lays Owen on the sofa.

The TV is still on, cheering can be heard. Toshiko steps out of the closet and looks into the family room. "People are dancing."

She points at the closet.

Owen strains to look in her direction. Ianto looks at him. "You want to see it?"

Owen nods, "yes" as he struggles to breathe.

"I'll bring the TV in here." Ianto promises, moving quickly to please the poor child.

 _Today there are no countries, and no races, and no differences – we are all a part of the same -_

Ianto unplugs the television. The screen goes black.

Toshiko moves the coats aside as Ianto wheels the television and the television cart out into the hall.

Ianto pulls the television into the family room. Careful not to trip it on the carpet.

The TV screen is like a mirror.

Ianto moves the television into position.

The TV stops moving.

The room is reflected and the figure standing stock still can be seen.

Ianto stays frozen with his hands on either side of the television cart. He's slightly bent over. His back is to the family room.

Ianto straightens and turns around slowly.

Owen is held by his waist three feet in the air. Owen's face turns to the colour of ash as his throat closes up.

For a moment it appears he's suspended in the air. Then we see the outlines... and we see the eyes. The black eyes.

There is a creature close to seven feet tall standing in the middle of the family room. Its powdery skin has taken on the shades, lines and colours of the family room so perfectly, it almost disappears.

It blinks.

Ianto and Toshiko have turned to stone. Toshiko stands frozen in the front hall.

Jack comes out of the doorway from the kitchen to the family room. He takes two steps into the room and comes to a stop next to the fireplace. The inhaler and syringe in his hand fall to the ground. The creature is between Ianto and Jack in the middle of the family room.

Owen is dying.

THE LAST SOUNDS OF AIR STOP IN HIS THROAT.

The lines of the chairs and windowsill mimicked on the creature's skin move as the creature moves its free hand.

Ianto's eyes shift to the hand.

 **THREE OF THE CREATURES** **FINGERS ARE MISSING - SLICED OFF BY A BUTCHER KNIFE.**

The creature's hand moves to Owen's face. It tilts its fingers and palm back.

 **THE COLORS ON THE HAND ARE ALREADY** **CHANGING TO MATCH IT'S NEW POSITION IN THE ROOM.**

A small pore opens up on its wrist.

 **A YELLOWISH GAS STARTS** **TO LEAK OUT OF THE OPENING.**

Ianto looks up from the leaking poison gas to the face of the creature. It's large empty black eyes lock on Ianto's.

 **IANTO STARTS TO HEAR A HIGH PITCH RINGING SOUND - IT BEGINS TO ENGULF ALL SOUND IN THE ROOM.**

 **IANTO STARES HELPLESSLY INTO THE LARGE BLACK EYES.**

 **WE MOVE INTO IANTO'S EYES... THEY WIDEN. WE SEE THE EMOTION IN THEM. HIS MOUTH BARELY GETS THE WORDS OUT.**

"He's reading my…"

 **THE HIGH PITCHED RINGING SOUND OVERWHELMS EVERYTHING. THE ROOM GOES BRIGHT WHITE.**

 **REALIZE IT IS THE HEADLIGHTS OF A CAR THAT PULLS TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD.**

The car door opens. Ianto Jones steps out. His coat is open. He is wearing a black shirt and black pants. A priest's white collar sits under the lapel of the black shirt. Ianto looks around in a daze.

We are on a country road. Four police cars are scattered amongst the tow trucks and the ambulances.

A large group of officers and workers hover around a green truck that has swerved off the road into a grouping of trees.

Officer Andy Davidson walks up to Ianto. He whispers something into a walkie clipped to his shirt as he approaches. Andy looks badly shaken. Beat. The two men look at each other.

"What do you know?" Andy asks softly, almost apologetically.

Ianto stands motionless with his hands at his sides. Beat. "There was an accident. Drunk driving. They weren't sure."

"He wasn't drinking. John fell asleep at the wheel." Andy gestures in the direction of one of the ambulances. John Hart sits to the side on the grass. His arms rest on his bent knees.

"Is he okay?"

"Yes... That's the first thing Rhiannon asked too."

Ianto smiles a little smile. "She's talking... Which ambulance is she in?"

"She's not in an ambulance Father."

"Why not?" Ianto is confused, "Good lord, she is not with Gray's body is she?"

"See Father, John's truck swerved off the road and ah... Hit Rhiannon and then a tree. She was pinned between the two."

"Pinned? What does that mean?"

"The truck... the truck has severed most of her lower half." Andy chokes out, his eyes shifting to the body bag containing Gray Harkness-Jones being lifted gently to the side of the road.

"What did you say?" Ianto blinks.

Beat.

"She won't be saved. At this point she's alive, because the truck is holding her together. She doesn't feel much, and she's talking almost like normal. We didn't pull the truck out, cause we wanted you to come down here to be with her, as long as she's awake. That won't be very long." Andy is speaking slowly, trying to get it all out and Ianto knows he has probably been practicing it in his head "Father, you understand what I've told you?"

"Andy." Ianto starts to weep softly, "Is this the last time I'm going to talk to my Sister?

"Yes it is."

The other officers turn and look as Ianto walks by them. He walks on, unaware of the stares.

He slows as he reaches the back bumper of the truck. It sticks out onto the road a few feet. He comes around the side of the vehicle.

Rhiannon Harkness is beautiful in a Mother Earth way. Her straight brown hair falls down over her oval face. She leans over the front bumper of the truck onto the hood. Her head rests on her arms like a child resting on a school desk. Her back is against a tree. The lower half of her is obscured by the truck.

She's able to raise her head and shoulders as Ianto walks up to her. She is shivering slightly.

"Hi sweetie." She smiles.


	15. Chapter 15

15

"Hi Rhi-rhi" Ianto glances down. There are bundles of blood soaked blankets in the area below her. They peek out under the twisted front of the truck. Ianto looks up quickly.

"We were just taking a walk before dinner."

"You both love walks."

"I guess it was meant to be."

"Does it hurt?" Ianto doesn't want to know, but hopes it is what people are supposed to say.

"I don't feel much."

"Good."

Ianto touches her cheek. She starts crying. Ianto starts crying with her.

"... Tell Owen to play games - it's okay to be silly."

"... I will."

"... Tell Toshiko to listen to her brother. He'll always take care of her."

"... I will."

"... Tell Ianto –"

"I'm here."

"Gray, tell Ianto…Tell him... See. Tell him to see." Rhiannon presses her cheek on top of Ianto's hand. She rests on it. Her eyes are distant. "And tell Jack to swing away."

"What?" Ianto blinks as he realises his sister doesn't know her husband has gone ahead to wait for her at the gates " "Rhiannon?... Rhiannon?"

 **WE ARE IN THE FAMILY ROOM. THE HIGH PITCHED RINGING SOUNDS FADE AND ARE REPLACED BY THE BREATHING IN THE ROOM.**

 **THE BREATHING IS JOINED BY THE HISSING OF GAS AS IT'S BEING RELEASED.**

 **THE CREATURE FORCES POISON GAS OUT INTO OWEN'S UNCONSCIOUS FACE.**

 **THE ROOM IS ENGULFED WITH STREAMS OF SUNLIGHT FROM THE BROKEN WINDOWS. THE LIGHT SEEMS TO CATCH CERTAIN THINGS IN THE ROOM AND MAKE THEM STAND OUT. THINGS ON SHELVES, THINGS ON TABLES, THINGS ON THE WALL.**

Ianto stares at the baseball bat on the wall.

"Swing away, Jack." Ianto speaks softly, the same dreamlike tone Rhiannon used.

Owen's face is obscured by gas.

"Jack." Ianto speaks louder and Jack turns and looks to Ianto. "Swing away."

Ianto's eyes are not on Jack. Jack follows his eye line to the baseball bat mounted above him.

Jack reaches up and takes the bat off its resting place.

The creature starts to move.

Jack's hands tighten around the handle as he walks forward. He stops. His weight shifts to his right leg.

The creature begins to turn and becomes more visible as its lines and colours don't match in position in the room.

Jack's left leg goes out. His torso and shoulders turn with staggering speed and strength. The bat slices through the air of the family room... Contact.

The creature gets slammed across the back with the baseball bat.

Owen is dropped. He falls to the carpet of the family room in an unnatural crumpled pile. His arms and legs flop lifelessly to the carpet.

The creature turns to face Jack. All the creature sees is the blue of wood as Jack swings like a lumberjack.

SLAM.

The creature falls to the ground.

Ianto takes Toshiko by the hand and moves to Owen. Ianto picks up his nephew's limp body in his arms.

The creature moves to its feet.

Jack's hands choke up on the bat. Jack's eyes are on fire.

Ianto leans down and picks up the full syringe of medicine on the ground.

Jack screams as he swings again. His powerful muscles pull his shoulders whipping around. The bat connects with the creature across its chest. The creature is thrown back into the wall. Two glass of water fall off a shelf and spills over the creature. The water connects with its skin.

The creature makes a high pitched sound.

Toshiko and Ianto look up.

 **THE CREATURE'S SHOULDER STOPS CHANGING COLORS AND WITHERS INTO A POWDERY WHITE.**

Jack looks back across the room at Toshiko and Ianto. They stare at each other with sudden realization.

Jack looks around at Toshiko's half-filled water glasses places all over the family room.

Ianto carries Owen through the kitchen and out the back door. Owen's arms and legs swing limp as Ianto walks.

Owen's head bobs back from its own weight as Ianto steps outside.

Jack steps in.

THE WOODEN BAT MAKES A SOUND AS IT CUTS THROUGH THE AIR. SLAM!

It connects with the creature. The creature falls back into the coffee table. Toshiko's glasses of water crack and SPLASH OVER the creature's TORSO.

ANOTHER HIGH PITCHED INHALE SCREAM.

His torso turns a powdery white.

Parts of its body are still changing and matching its environment. Parts are white.

The creature stands again.

Jack looks for the next target in the room. Toshiko points to the dining table where the old chicken teriyaki, bacon cheeseburger and spaghetti with meatballs sit untouched.

Jack sees the three glasses of water at Toshiko's seat. He nods.

 **JACK YELLS WITH EVERYTHING IN HIS LUNGS. His wrists turn. His shoulders torque. THE WOODEN LOUISVILLE SLUGGER SLICES** **THE AIR AND SHATTERS WHEN IT CONNECTS WITH THE UPPER CHEST OF THE CREATURE. PIECES OF WOOD SPLINTER OVER THE FAMILY ROOM.**

 **THE CREATURE WAVERS AND THEN ALL SEVEN FEET OF IT TIPS OVER. IT FALLS BACK. IT CLIPS THE TV STAND AS IT FALLS. IT LANDS ON THE GROUND WITH A THUD.**

 **THE CREATURE'S BLACK, EMPTY EYES LOOK UP IN TIME TO SEE TOSHIKO'S GLASSES OF WATER RESTING ON THE TELEVISION, FALL... AND SPILL OVER THE EDGE - RIGHT ONTO ITS FACE.**

 **THE CREATURE'S SCREAMS FILL THE FAMILY ROOM - AND THEN SUDDENLY STOP.**

 **IT BECOMES VERY STILL. EVERY INCH OF ITS BODY TURNS A WITHERED, POWDERY WHITE. BEAT.**

Toshiko watches quietly from the door. Jack drops the handle of the bat in his hands.

Jack and Toshiko find Ianto kneeling in the grass. Owen lays limp in his arms. They kneel down in the grass with him.

Jack sees the empty syringe in Ianto's hand. He looks to Owen. The boy's head is tilted back. His tiny mouth hangs open unnaturally.

"His lungs were closed." Ianto is repeating it like a mantra "His lungs were closed. No poison got in... No poison got in."

Jack stares at Owen. His body is utterly still.

"His lungs were closed." Ianto whimpers, his eyes spilling over.

Jack reaches for Owen's still hand.

"Don't touch him." Ianot sob.

"Ianto." Jack choked as Owen lies lifeless.

"Don't touch him." Ianto repeats, pulling at his hair as he stares at the still child laying in repose on the soft grass.

Toshiko is crying.

"Ianto." Jack is openly crying and Ianto looks up to lock his gaze with Jack. He can't do this. He can't lose anyone else.

"Don't."

"Uncle." Owen's voice is weak as Ianto starts crying. Every bit of sadness trapped in his body is released. He looks down through tears and tears at Owen.

"Did someone save me?" Owen blinks with surprise.

"Yeah baby." Ianto sobs as he finally falls into Jack's arms "I think someone did."

We look out through the broken glass of the second story bedroom window. We see the worn jungle gym. We see the single tree throwing shade on the picnic table. We see the golden brown corn lining the back of the yard.

And we see the Harkness-Jones family.

Sitting together on the grass.

Huddled together in the sunlight.

Jack finally angles his head and kisses Ianto with the frantic need of a survivor, his air…his lifeline in his arms.

Ianto relaxes as he accepts this too.

END


End file.
